Expedition: Omicron
by Zoram Selrof
Summary: Sequel to Shooting Star Adventures. It hasn't even been three months since the action-packed and nerve-racking expedition to the Planet Zenay III when a new expedition is formed to visit a recently discovered planet temptatively labelled "Omicron": it'd seem it'll be a simpler expedition this time around but that planet hides deadly secrets under its desolate and dead surface...
1. Prologue: Stranger in a strange world

**Expedition: Omicron**

**By Zoram Selrof**

**Prologue: Stranger in a strange world**

09:19 AM (Japan Time), Thursday August the 5th, 2205…

"… Another day has begun… Oi! Ka! Are ya there?"

"Yeah. What did you want, Ku?"

"Have you seen the pet?"

"The pet…? Dunno. It's gotta be spawning another pool."

"Have you made progress in cracking those codes in the computers so that we can unlock those sealed cargo routes?"

"Yeah. I think I'm close to cracking them and we'll finally figure out if "Ground Zero" is what we think it is."

"Good. I'm off to seeing the sunrise. Wanna tag?"

"No. I want to do some research."

"Fine. Do as ya like."

"Hmpf. I knew that."

Two unidentified figures slightly over a meter and fifty tall were talking inside of a small garage-like room which had ten hover engine open-cockpit Jeep vehicles: the garage was illuminated by fluorescent lights set on the ceiling and the whole room was built using steel: the right side of the room had a shutter plus a service door built on it and two large doors were set on the left side of the room as well.

"Alright, alright…" The male figure, "Ku", replied.

"Do ya want me to ring if I find the pet?" The female, "Ka", asked.

"Don't bother! It's not the first time it goes off elsewhere."

"Hmpf. Whatever."

"Ku" opened the service door and came out into a large and wide tunnel which spanned south and north: the south end was blocked by a large hatch door which looked very thick and heavy: it had marks of having been hit with guns on the past but they hadn't affected its structural integrity: rows of fluorescent lights were built on the sides of it and providing light to it.

"I still find it amazing that this planet has such a huge network of cargo transport tunnels… There has to be something they mined here and they needed to transport to then process in the labs… But unless we find a way around that huge lockdown or how the pet escaped from inside of the locked down area… Then we won't get anywhere." "Ku" muttered with a hint of surprise.

He spotted a rung ladder and climbed it up before emerging into the bottom of a small valley-like formation: he closed the metallic hatch and then climbed up the slope in front of him to stand at its upper edge and look out: a panorama of different mountain peaks and rivers was extending around where he was at: a bluish fog lingered around there and the skies' light was also pale bluish: a filtered sun could be seen starting to rise over the horizon.

"No matter how many times I see it, this panorama captivates me… It must because of the knowledge that there are only two persons in this world capable of fully understanding what the sunrise brings with it and the glory of this world…" "Ku" made a monologue.

"Guess so." "Ka" suddenly joined him.

"I thought ya wanted to do some research?"

"It could wait."

"Ah. Fine."

"I guess ya won't mind playing that game again…"

"Of course not. It's fun."

"What an irony! We're becoming blander with every passing day."

"It was inevitable. We've had several months to get used to this age's customs, language, and such. I now don't feel like rushing. We have a score to settle with those guys, but… The longer the wait, the more unprepared we'll catch them. They can't expect us, anyway."

"Sure thing… By the way… One of the cameras spotted the pet in Region 033."

"Region 033… Where was that again?"

"The settlement's ruins…"

"Oh. True. There's another entrance over there to another garage and one service tunnel which can be transited to reach our region, Region 011. "Ground zero" is Region 001, ironically enough."

"Sure thing… But we were lucky to find a world where humans had been at some point and they left such a legacy behind hidden beneath its surface… These oceans are filled with strange life-forms which are intriguing… It looks like they underwent a sudden mutation on the scope of a few years instead of countless generations… That blue stuff must be the cause: it's gotta have spread over 80% of the planet and contaminated it forever… Luckily enough, it can't affect us given our nature as "Denpa Bodies"…" "Ka" exposed.

"Ya sound like a PR man." "Ku" joked.

"Hmpf. Very funny."

"Whatever… It won't be long before we find out how to turn this stuff into a weapon to power us up and be able to hit those guys hard… Their ace-in-the-holes are useless by now given how we've altered our body structure to be immune… I'll be lovely… Their faces of despair and fear knowing they are gonna die… But that wouldn't be enough… We'd made them go through the _Naraku_ before slowly and painfully killing them off… I feel a thirst of blood…" "Ku" sounded eager.

"Hah. That's why we women can use better arts than men do: they always want to do everything quickly and in a rush but we've had patience and can be deadlier at this stuff…"

"Sure thing… And we can also pick up wandering signals from Earth using a curvature in Time-Space: this way we can remain entertained and up-to-date about what goes on there… I'm rather surprised at what happened over two months ago…"

"Yeah… The "Zenay III Incident", WAXA named it… It'd seem that the culprit behind it was a man with the title of _daimaou_… As expected of men: they always use manly titles… But… I'm amused at the info we've found about that woman… The "Ice Queen"… To think she was able to rule the whole Japan underground through fear, terror, murder, blackmail, extortion and menaces… It's inspired me."

"No wonder. I won't question that."

"Good… Hmmm?"

"What's wrong?"

"I feel something… Which isn't the pet… Or a life-form… Let's go back inside: I need to use the camouflaged antenna!"

"O-oi! Wait for me!"

"Ka" suddenly slid down the ramp towards the hatch while "Ku" followed her back inside: they ran into the garage and then into an adjacent room filled with empty metallic crates and one workstation plus another two doors leading into other rooms: "Ka" quickly sat down in front of the workstation and began to madly type into it.

"Pick up any incoming or outgoing signals… Or any signature in orbit which wasn't there before…" She muttered.

"A satellite…?" "Ku" asked.

"Yeah… It was scanning the terrain but since it was using IR imagery then it didn't pick us up because we don't emit heat… I'm trying to find out a way to study it without triggering alarms on it… It's transmitting in live using our very same technology, which indicates a common base: I dunno if the owner got a hold of it or what." "Ka" exposed.

"Satellite… Similar tech… Hmmm…"

"Got a suspect in mind?" "Ka" asked him.

"Maybe… Those guys… The so-called "Subspace" organization…" "Ku" admitted.

"Subspace…? Ah. That trio of high-power Denpa Bodies… I remember them all-too-well… And if the rumors that their leader used to work for the "Ice Queen" are true, then… It's not a crazy idea. He could've inherited the tech…"

"And something tells me they'll be coming here sooner or later to check it out on person."

"Heh, heh, heh. We'll save ourselves the trouble of having to go after them: they'll come to us! And we'll have a welcome committee ready for them! Wait! The satellite is broadcasting something… A pre-recorded SHF message…"

"It's gotta be a greeting."

The computer hissed before a clean signal came in and someone could be heard breathing.

"Welcome to my infinitely evil, twisted and thick-headed Universe! I'm Mars Warrior and I'm gonna tell you guys that the Zombie Club's Curse has been engaged: expect trolling to come in the next 48 hours and let's start with a simply rhyme… Oh! Wandering wanderer of ways who reaches the reaching reach… Your path shall be filled with peril and danger yet you may be lucky and find a guy holding a secret weapon… Was that enough of a teaser?" A guy's voice began to chant in an amused tone of voice.

"Mars Warrior…? I thought his name was Omega…" "Ka" frowned and sounded puzzled.

"Maybe it's a nickname he made up…" "Ku" shrugged.

"Could be, yeah…"

"What else is he gonna say?"

"Dunno."

"Ahem, ahem and ahem! Patent Ahem Man!"

"No way…" "Ku" groaned.

"And I told the Doc to prescribe Clark Kent – sama~ with the elixir of eternal life~ but he insisted it didn't exist…"

"Of course it doesn't…" "Ka" drily muttered.

"Oho! Mr. Shoes came. Yo! Brad Shad! What's up?"

"Blood Shadow, sir!"

"This ain't recorded: it's live!" "Ku" realized.

"Did ya find a good secret weapon?"

"I'm afraid I don't follow you, sir."

"I mean…"

There was the sound of whisper over the line: laughter rang out while the other person sounded baffled.

"That was lame, sir!"

"It was brilliant, Brad Shad."

"Blood Shadow, sir!"

"Brad Shad."

"OMEGA~!" A third voice roared.

"Ops. Mr. Yell came."

"Stop pestering Blood! How many times do I need to repeat it? A trillionth or what?"

"Ask Mr. Yells."

"Answer me!"

"Dunno."

"You're gonna regret this."

"Yeah? Why?"

"Cause I'll lock you in the capsule again."

"Oho. And when I come out Brad Shad will have found a guy holding a cool secret weapon and fallen for him?"

"No."

"Ice Man showed up!"

"Ice Man was a "Darkloid" whom Sigma and Akatsuki beat on that sand-filled planet!"

"Then… Ice Voice Man."

"Wait! What's that?"

"What?"

"That mike you're carrying!"

"A prop."

"Hand it over!"

"Catch me firstly."

They heard quick footsteps running away along with a clear growl of frustration and anger.

"Boss! Boss! Cool it down!" A fourth voice yelled.

"Why does this happen to me!"

"Cool it down! You're getting hysterical. You need to rest or drink a tea: you can't work like that, Boss."

"I'm about to…!"

"I'll handle that."

"Got a plan?"

"Somewhat…"

"Eh… What should I do, Boss?" The one named Blood Shadow asked.

"Do as you like…" There was a sigh of defeat.

"Roger, sir."

"Bloody Shadowy~! Come at me~!"

"OMEGA~!"

"Boss!"

"All hands: abandon ship! Catastrophe Man came!"

"This…!"

"Heh, heh, heh! Thanks for listening, our beloved public on Planet X! That is: if ya understood anything! Heh, heh, heh!"

The signal went dead and both of them remained quiet without moving for some seconds: a low chirping sound could be heard nearby and both turned around: there was nothing there.

"The pet's come back and is hiding by switching to IR spectrum… I dunno how it can do that, but it sure can come in handy to hide from untrained and unaided eyes…" "Ku" muttered.

"That Omega man is crazier than a lunatic. No wonder those men over there lose all patience when it comes to tackling that guy's lame and cheap jokes… And was that of the "secret weapon" what I think it is or something else altogether?" "Ka" wondered.

"No. Ya got it right."

"Whatever."

"Oi! You, pet! Go do something else: we're discussing."

The chirping sound rang out again and "Ku" sighed in defeat while "Ka" grumbled something in clear annoyance.

"Conclusion: that thing's deaf. Didn't we say time ago, Ku?"

"Crap. I forgot…!"

"I'm sure it has some level of intelligence but doesn't seem to higher than, say, a gorilla's. It's been proven than it can interact with simple systems and devices and dive into water but it doesn't seem to need any food given the lack of mouth: it just seems to be a moving source of energy on its own." "Ka" reminded him.

"Yeah, yeah… At least when we show our weapons it does understand that we don't want it butting in."

"Ku" drew a pump shotgun which he aimed at the air: something emitted a bluish glow and quickly "flew" outta the room at a mad speed as if it was afraid of it.

"Really… Mere instinct, I know, but the thing should know by now that our weapons can't harm it any further: all attacks bounce off its body and do nothing."

"Nature's mysterious ways…" "Ka" shrugged.

"Ya sound like a poet." "Ku" joked.

"… Fine. Then I'll deepen my research."

"Oi, oi! It's not like I was being discriminating!"

"No. But I don't feel humored."

"Crap."

"Not like I plan on going too far, so…"

"Alright. It's our deal and I'm gonna abide by it."

"Do as you like."

"I'm gonna continue where ya left off in the code-cracking: the humans who set this up wanted to make sure nothing could come in and out of the locked down area sans permit but there's a limit to how good an encryption protocol can be, after all." "Ku" told her.

"Sure…"

"Later."

"Ku" came out and locked the door before heading towards the large lock doors and sighing upon stopping in front of them and looking at their imposing size.

"Denpa – Henkan. Cyber In." He muttered.

He suddenly disappeared from the real world to enter the "Cybernetics" of the doors which had just one control panel set on the middle of it: "Ku" walked up to it and began to type into it to form a "Real Wave" screen: rows of raw data scrolled down it and "Ku" stopped the flow at point where the stream became pure gibberish.

"Let's try a new combination of pass-codes… 4567891230… Looks like it worked… 95% decoded… Good. If we keep it like this, then it shouldn't take much longer to figure out the rest of it… I'm eager to find out what's hidden in the "Ground zero"…"

"Ahem Man's Round 2: Start! Who was the president of X Nation 10 years ago?" A voice suddenly asked.

"No way… That guy's back at it?" "Ku" cursed.

"Correct answer: no – one! There isn't and there wasn't any X Nation in the world! There used to be a Z – Nation but 'cause they were the last letter of the Alphabet they were at the last spot in the rank! Nyah, hah, hah, hah, ha~h!"

"Omega. Hand me that. Playtime's over!"

"Huh? Hey! Doc! Wait a min! I haven't…!"

The transmission was suddenly cut and "Ku" sighed in relief as he focused again on his job.

"Hmpf. Come anytime, Subspace and Satella Police… We'll be waiting for you lowlifes… Especially for you lowlife, Rock Man…! I've got a score to settle with you lowlife… And I'll see to it! You lowlife are walking straight into the territory of the _shinigami_… Into MY territory! Mwah, hah, hah, hah, ha~h!"

He laughed aloud in a triumphal tone of voice…


	2. Chapter 1: Visit

**Chapter 1: Visit**

11:11 AM (Japan Time), Thursday August the 5th …

"… Mwah, hah, hah, hah, ha~h! Moon Disaster's laughable! And so is that guy's alter ego: Moon Ace! Mwa, hah, hah, ha~h!"

"Huff. Not this again… That of "Moon Ace" is a pun by Omega – san, Rock…"

"Who cares?"

"I do."

"Oho. Our lawyer knocks at the door."

"I'm not a lawyer nor is Acid."

"Claw Man!"

"Acid."

"Claw Coward!"

"Acid."

"Claw Idiot!"

"Acid."

"Claw Jerk!"

"Acid."

"Sulfuric Acid!"

"No way…"

"Gotcha!"

"Stop it already! I don't want you coming up with lame jokes when I talk with Boss."

"Bossy boss of bosses?"

"NO!"

"Yell Man Jr. showed up!"

"I give up!"

Hoshikawa Subaru, aged thirteen, was discussing with the "Wizard" War Rock as they walked down a metallic corridor forming a curve and with doors opening on both sides of it: some arches were set every a few tens of meters and fluorescent lights were built on the ceiling.

"Okay, Cossack! I'm off to telling Moon Ace to go play poker with Acid Disaster! Mwah, hah, hah, hah, ha~h!"

"What a dilemma…!"

Subaru rolled his eyes and then headed for a door with the label "ELEVATOR TO COMMAND BRIDGE" which he opened to step into a small room which only contained a cargo elevator and its climbing shaft: he stepped into the platform and inputted a command into a console: the elevator hummed and began to climb up.

"Rock's getting bad influences from Omega – san and Sigma – san and turning crazier with each passing week! He's forced me to fight the "Omega" and "Sigma" Denpa Bodies again… Those guys are a nightmare and I barely make it out alive!" He muttered with obvious annoyance on his voice.

The elevator reached its end and Subaru stepped out of it into a small dome-shaped room: he stopped and looked around while being seemingly in awe.

"Whoa. Every time I come here, I end up awed."

The floor was a narrow steel corridor wide enough for one person to stand which was shaped like two trapezes connecting each other by a line: the ground was lowered and covered in a grid – like metal on the spaces between each trapeze and to left and right of the corridor: another room could be seen expanding downwards below this one through the metallic grid's openings.

"The Central Hub is just below this room…"

Subaru spotted a small circle which marked the start of a rail crossing across the room until the other end: he followed it with his sight and ended up spotting a black metallic armchair with the Alphabet letter "V" painted behind it on purple color placed at the end of the rail and giving Subaru the back.

"Boss' chair…"

The other end of the room contained a console which was filled with several LEDs, indicators, switches, levers and buttons plus a built-in keyboard and mouse pad: three gigantic and interconnected LCD screens had been affixed to the wall to be above it.

"And, lastly…"

The room's walls had several metallic stripes built into it which contained round LED lights: the centermost point of the room had a hatch built into the ceiling which was currently closed.

"Hello, Boss!" Subaru called out.

There was no reply, so he frowned and timidly walked over to the armchair: it was empty.

"Odd. Maybe he's busy elsewhere… Hmmm…"

He suddenly sat down on it and looked at the LCD screens: the left one was displaying a set of blueprints, the right one showed live feed of the Earth rotating and the center one displayed a close-up of a patch of terrain somewhere which looked like a continent surrounded by murky oceanic waters: irregular fissures opened there and there plus some mountains ranges had formed all over it.

"Whoa! Is that…? It's gotta be a new planet Boss discovered… What good timing!"

"Heh, heh, heh, heh… B-B-B-B-Bertie~! My precioussss! Yesss! Come at me~! Brad Shad's waiting for ya~!" A voice suddenly rang out from the ceiling.

"O – Omega – san…?" Subaru gasped.

Someone landed in the ground right behind Subaru with a soft thud sound and Subaru felt two invisible hands being placed on his shoulders: he began to sweat and looked nervous.

"Hiya~!"

The "invisibility" effect faded to reveal Omega.

The guy struck as being over one meter and eighty tall.

A blue jewel shaped like an inverted triangle was set on the forehead of his helmet which was emitting a cross-shaped flash.

His eyes' irises were blue and they displayed calm and concentration while long blond hair came out from behind him and reached all the way to the floor.

He had a red vest over his mainly black body and red armor over his forearms and boots: two golden circlets were set around his forearms and on his boots as well.

"Yo! 13 - Man! Welcome~!" Omega greeted with a broad grin.

"What did you say, sir?" Subaru politely asked.

"Aren't ya 13 by now?"

"Y-yes, sir… My birthday is in June, so…" Subaru nervously admitted.

"Wanna know what's that image in the middle, Bertie~?"

"Please, sir! My name is Subaru, sir! I did use the name "Albert" in the past, but I legally am Hoshikawa Subaru, sir!"

"Ya sound like a prosecutor."

"No way, sir…"

"That's Planet X!"

"Planet X, you say, sir?"

"Yessir! 97 light-years from Earth in NNW direction… But Boss hasn't picked an official name yet."

"Wow."

"But I did have the privilege of treating them to EHF-broadcasted live documentary~!" Omega added.

"I-is that so, sir?"

"Yessir! But it'd seem no-one lives there, sadly enough! Maybe better luck next time around, Bertie~! Are ya gonna date Brad Shad?"

"Who is that person, sir?"

"Your shadow, Bertie~!"

"Don't you mean Blood Shadow, sir?"

"Brad Shad sounds cooler!"

"No way, sir…"

"Way, Bertie~! Has Hibiki proposed to you?"

"No, sir!"

"What are ya waiting for?"

"We are barely 13, sir!"

"Heh, heh, heh. I knew it: Lawyer Man has been giving you lessons on how to handle that, Bertie~!"

"Acid, sir!"

"Acid Disaster corroded all "Sweet Candy" in Kodama Elementary~! And Moon Ace went to the moon, Subari~!"

"That sounds ridiculous, sir!"

"So? Did ya find your wandering wanderer of ways boyfriend?"

"If you mean Tsukasa – kun, sir, then, no, Akatsuki – san and I have been unable to locate him, sir, and I don't get where you got the idea that there was anything else but friendship in our connection, sir!"

"It ain't like I'm the Prime Minister, Subari~!"

"But I have manners, sir! You are above me in age and knowledge, and it'd be a rude thing not to acknowledge it, sir!"

"OMEGA~! What are you doing this time around, huh?"

A man walked towards him: he looked close to his mid-twenties.

His eyes' irises were red and his hair was colored jet-black yet it was neatly combed and arranged: there wasn't the slightest trace of facial hair on him.

He wore body armor made of an unknown grayish compound material: some purple patterns were drawn around it.

He sported a ragged, torn and worn out purple cape attached to the back of his shoulders which spread all the way to the ground but had some centimeters' margin of space.

He lastly carried two elaborated sword sheaths attached to the thick central belt colored black running around his waist.

"Hmmm? Ah. Subaru. I didn't know you'd come… Is Omega being bothersome?" The man greeted with a quick look at him before directing a hostile glare at Omega.

"He is trying to fill my head with _clichés_ about what I should do regarding the bonds with my friends, Boss." Subaru summarized.

"Hmpf. Like I thought… Omega! Go talk something with Dragon and stop pestering both Blood and Subaru! They don't deserve this."

"O. K., Emperor's Hand!"

Omega ran off at top speed and laughed while a twitch formed over the man's right eye: Subaru gulped, jumped out of the chair and stepped aside as he sat down on it and began to slowly tap the armrests and inhale to then exhale.

"I need to reprogram him!" He cursed.

Subaru stood silent while the man hissed something under his breath and looked like he was about to rip Omega to pieces.

"… So? How's it going?" He suddenly asked Subaru.

"Ah! All's fine, sir…"

"Hmmm? Huh? What's that photo?"

The man had centered his attention on the center LCD screen's photo and he looked surprised.

"Omega – san said it was from a planet a probe discovered… He's named it Planet X, but…"

"Planet X… So unoriginal, really!"

"Eh… Maybe "Omicron" would do better?"

"Omicron? Why not… What's this? E~H? Omega actually was rerouting the wireless microphone's live feed to that planet using an EHF bandwidth signal?" The man sounded baffled.

"It'd seem there's nothing conscious living there, though, Boss." Subaru pointed out to him.

"Ah. Phew."

"Oh. You were worried they could think we came all the way out there just to troll them?"

"Yeah. But luckily his message fell on deaf ears. Fortunately enough!"

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah, ha~h! I knew it! Thrill was 'round the corner! War Rock – sama is gonna go and blow 200 Viruses up in 24 hours! Mwah, hah, hah, hah, ha~h!"

"Yikes!"

"War Rock… You too?"

War Rock had suddenly shown up behind Subaru and he was laughing in a maniac-like manner: the man rolled his eyes while Subaru gasped from the surprise.

"Yeah, Vadous! I'm gonna beat Claw Man and Ox!"

"There are no Denpa Viruses there."

"Huh? But there were on…"

"On Zenay III but that was because that Twilight guy set it up on purpose."

"No way!"

"Way."

"But, then, the…"

"The Outer Space Cosmo Wave had Viruses because the "R" Wizards scattered them there and there was Wave Road technology. But that planet's deserted and there's no such tech anywhere on it. War Rock. You won't find life in all planets of the cosmos: look at Solar System to begin with, will you? Only Earth has life on it." Vadous told him.

"Che! Clever bothersome guys!"

"Yeah, yeah. Don't wanna come, stay here." Subaru told him.

"No! I'm coming 'cause I'll beat Ox to visiting another planet! Mwah, hah, hah, ha~h!" War Rock laughed.

"Great." Subaru rolled his eyes.

"Oh yeah! Omega had a message."

"What?" Vadous didn't bother to turn.

"Well! Omega and Dragon have just invented minced sausage with soy sauce~! Mwah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, ha~h!" War Rock laughed.

"Fan – tas – tic. Gotta find a new cook, too." Vadous grimly muttered.

"By the way, Boss…" Subaru called for his attention.

"Hmmm? What's up?"

"Eh… Regarding my friend…"

"Futaba Tsukasa? There have been several raids into former "Secret Empire" facilities but they didn't ID him amongst the freed ones."

"Oh…"

"Maybe he was taken overseas illegally, too. I'm staking for Choina and I did direct Akatsuki and Blood there." Vadous reported with a sigh.

"Then… They could…"

"… Could. And I'm afraid it's happening as we speak."

"… Tsukasa – kun…" Subaru muttered.

"But we'll find him: these guys are predictable. I'm sure there must've been a deal somewhere or that local police are already investigating the matter to then decapitate the gang."

"… I understand. I will wait for him…"

"Don't give up hope, Subaru. I'm sure we'll find him and we'll be able to rescue him. You want to forgive him for what happened with Gemini and you won't be at ease until you find him… I promise that I'll find him no matter what, Subaru." Vadous stood up and leant his hands over his shoulders.

"Thank you, Boss…" Subaru formed a weak smile.

"Today's a Thursday, right?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Why don't we go visit Omicron in the weekend? It'd seem there's something intriguing there and it might be best to check it out by ourselves: you need an adventure, too!" Vadous smiled at him.

"Whoa! Eh… Count me in, Boss!"

"Call Hibiki and Akatsuki, too. I'd rather leave Ushijima and Utagai here as defense line."

"Oh. And what about…"

"Huh? Ah! You mean Solo? No problem. I'm sure he'll end up finding out on his own. I'll leave the methods for him to come if he wants to, which he'll surely do."

"Guess that, yeah."

"As much as he denies it, you interest him and he must want to compete with you to see who's stronger." Vadous grinned and blinked him an eye.

"Like Rock and Ox…" Subaru grinned.

"Oh yeah! Let that purple jerk come: we're gonna sweep the ground with the guy standing on it!" War Rock laughed.

"You should be going back before Omega can…"

"Yahoo~! The Dragon and Doom Duo are in action!"

Omega suddenly jumped inside of the room from the cargo elevator's shaft and suddenly took out a printed photo which he showed to Subaru: his jaw hit the floor and he looked baffled.

"N-no way!" He uttered.

"Way, Subari~!"

"Heh! Not bad." War Rock chuckled.

Vadous, however, quickly walked to where Omega was, snapped the photo and immediately tore it into pieces without beating an eyebrow: he directed a deadly glare at Omega who seemed to lose his earlier confidence and slowly stepped back: Vadous looked about to explode.

"… Into the capsule. Until the weekend." He hissed.

Vadous closed his fists and eyes before slowly inhaling and exhaling for a minute or two: even War Rock looked afraid of his earlier display.

"… Editing a photo to make Subaru believe Futaba was dating Hibiki in secret wasn't amusing, kid. You'll regret this." He icily muttered.

He jumped down the shaft without bothering to call for the elevator.

"Man… last time I joke with the guy…" War Rock weakly muttered.

"I knew this would happen sooner or later…" Subaru sounded scared.

"Guess I'll… stay silent… for a while… Man… My mood's gone…"


	3. Chapter 2: Score to settle

**Chapter 2: Score to settle**

12:02 PM (Japan Time), Thursday August the 5th…

"… Wha~t? That admin jerk still won't give me the money he owes me, you say? Tell him he has 72 hours or else I'll have his head on a silver platter! Get it!"

"R-roger, Gori – sama…"

"Move it!"

"Yes, sir!"

"Che! Useless grunts… Security!"

"Yes, Gori – sama?"

"Anything unusual?"

"No, sir. We haven't seen or detected suspicious or dangerous persons in a 500 meter radius of the home office, sir. All security systems are running at 100% efficiency and the security staff is ready to intervene at a moment's notice…"

Gori Monjirou (former host of UMA Yeti) was sitting on a cushioned rotating armchair behind a marble office desk built inside of a luxurious office room: it was decorated with taste and reflected the expensive tastes of the owner, who was currently using a Hunter – VG to speak with one of his secretaries.

"Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh. What bothersome foolish people! My drama is a thousand times better than this dull and useless routine which only leads to vanity and greed… The archangels shall descend forth along with the flames of purgatory and announce the Apocalypse… Or so I think it said, but I don't remember it very well… Who cares, anyway? Point is: you didn't take me into account, Gori Monjirou! It's been a while but I wouldn't be surprised if you forgot me altogether!" A voice suddenly announced with obvious amused.

"Who the…?" Gori cursed as he stood up and leant on the desk.

"Halt! How did you get here?" Someone outside of the office room demanded.

"Identify yourself!"

"I have no time for you lowlifes! Hah!"

"Ua~h!"

"Gua~h!"

"What the hell's going on?" Gori cursed.

"… Heh, heh, heh, heh, heh… What weak fools!"

The door slowly opened to reveal Hyde (former instigator of the Mu Continent Incident) stepping in at a slow yet sure pace while holding his cane and having a smug smile on his face.

"Hyde! You lowlife…! How did you get inside?" Gori cursed.

"… My, my. It'd seem you've forgotten what happened in Yaeba Resort about one year and 4 months ago, Gori!" Hyde grinned.

"Che. Denpa – Henkan or whatever that thing was called!"

"Correct!"

"Whaddya want outta me?"

"Information!"

"Hmpf… What… Ya wanna close a deal with the underground?" Gori grumbled.

"No! I need to locate someone to liquidate them."

"Can't ya do that yourself, hmmm?"

"Idiot! Ever since my failed incursion into WAXA, a bounty's been hovering around my neck! I can't go out just like that."

"Hmpf! Who do you seek?"

"Hoshikawa Subaru!"

"That kid from back then…? Still in that shabby town, Ko – something Town…" He shrugged as he sat down on the armchair and played the know-it-all.

"Che! I should've thought of that!" Hyde cursed.

"By the way! I heard some rumors about ya… Being spotted in Thailand and messing with the shrine… Ya stole the OOPArt "Shinobi" from there, eh? But something picks me… Ya could've used that one, yet ya want to all the bother of stealing the Dinosaur OOPArt from Rock Man… Were ya saving it for something, maybe?" Gori grinned.

"H-how could you…?" Hyde sounded baffled.

"Now, now… Combined with a report of someone who vanished that same night and such… I can put two and two together. Ya wanna have insurance, eh? So why didn't ya send it to locate Rock Man if nobody can even imagine it exists, eh?" Gori taunted.

"It doesn't involve you lowlife!" Hyde hissed.

"Hah! I could make good business with that."

"You lowlife… Blackmailing me?"

"Eye for an eye!"

"Then die!"

"Heh! Today ain't my day to die. Hah!"

"W-what the…?"

A hatch opened beneath Gori's chair and he fell down inside of it while it closed: Hyde ran over to it and hit it with the cane only for an electrical current to become visible.

"Huh! A trap! Lucky me: I wear gloves the whole time… Whatever! Gori! I'll settle the score with you lowlife later on… And if you dare to talk… You die. But that brat goes first!"

Hyde ran off the office while laughing in his maniacal manner…

12:18 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Mwah, hah, hah, hah, ha~h! Brad Shad's a punk!"

"Ox… Sigma told ya that?"

"Yeah! Mwah, hah, hah, hah, ha~h!"

"I'm Blood Shadow."

"Brad Shad! Hah!"

"If Boss hears this… He'll tell _iinchou_ and expect some scolding from her into Gonta – kun."

"Ugh! I don't wanna involve Ophiucus' host."

"Why? You had elemental advantage over her."

"She played tricks with illusions and poisons! We used to name her "Ms. Witch" when she was out of ear-range!"

"Uh-oh. That sounds like a pale imitator of the Ice Queen, even!"

"Okay, okay! I'll d-drop it! J-just don't tell anyone! Deal?"

"Deal."

"Later!"

A guy had been talking with Ushijima Gonta's Wizard Ox.

This guy looked rather similar to Rock Man but with several design alternations to him: his main color of choice was red.

He sported black shades and a flock of messy reddish hair came out from behind the helmet given how it only covered the face and the front of the head: his ear-pads had two purple "V" letters drawn inside of them.

His armor had the purple letters "BS" engraved on the chest area while his legs were colored black and had two red stripes running down the legs' sides in a parallel manner.

His right forearm was covered by a device colored red.

It was coupled with a piece of it which was colored transparent red: a small indentation near the wrist had the same "BS" initials engraved there: and, where the hand would be, a large double-barreled shotgun emerged instead.

"Man… Ever since Sir Omega came up with that nickname, I've had to bear with it… Boss is running out of patience to handle them, though, and that ain't a good sign. Anyway… I better wrap up my patrol and head back to the HQ…"

"Hand over the Ace Program, Rock Man!" A voice rang out.

"Hmmm?"

The guy named Blood Shadow turned around to see Phantom Black standing on the Wave Road and looking eager.

"Phantom Black… We thought you'd fled to the Bahamas."

"The Bahamas? Why?" He seemed to frown.

"King had stuff there."

"I have nothing to do with Dealer! I act on my own!"

"Fine." He turned around.

"What! Challenging me, kid?"

"That's because you picked the wrong person. Name's Blood Shadow: I'm built on Rock Man's image, but I ain't him." Blood Shadow made a dismissing gesture with his left hand.

"No way!"

"Way, Phantom."

"But you lowlife sound identical to Rock Man!"

"That's because I was to pose as him for a while time ago… But what I did on the past doesn't matter. I have no reason to fight you and I know Rock Man's beaten you over and over again. You're not worrisome, Phantom, so collect lilies in Netherlands." Blood Shadow shrugged.

"You lowlife… That wasn't in my drama!"

"Again with the drama… You ain't kami – sama."

"I am!"

"You aren't."

"How dare you!"

"You couldn't even rival the _mazokuchou_ we fought back in May or the _daimaou_."

"Impossible!"

"This is reality, Phantom. No – one can change that. Go set up a VR system and play with it until you get stuck there and believe it's your "reality" which you can control." Blood Shadow grumbled.

"Why, you…! I'll have you lowlife's power, then! Phantom…!"

"Slow."

Blood Shadow turned around in a blur, jumped in front of Phantom Black, and placed his shotgun's barrel on the chest.

"Charged shotgun shot."

"GUA~H!"

The blast propelled Phantom Black across the air before landing, hard, on the Wave Road, while Blood Shadow merely let the recoil push him backwards a bit.

"I-impossible…! One hit…! One hit…! And I feel so beaten up…! What are you lowlife…?"

"What am I? A warrior. A warrior who believes in bonds."

"Bonds? What rubbish!"

"That doesn't make you different from Solo."

"Solo! That brat… I'll have my revenge on that brat, too!"

"He'll beat you up before you can even yell "Phantom Claw"…"

"Crap!"

"Go to your turf and don't come back, Phantom."

"You lowlife… I'm not done yet! Phantom Claw!"

"Useless."

Blood Shadow merely stepped to the right without bothering to turn around so the Phantom Claw shot past him: Phantom Black made a grimace and rushed towards Blood Shadow as if trying to hit him with the cane but Blood Shadow jumped off the Wave Road into another below him and suddenly sped away.

"Whatever! I'll go kill Rock Man!"

"Sorry! But I won't let ya! Come at full power!"

"Who the…?"

"My name's Sigma, ugly!"

This guy was about two meters tall and was colored jet black: a red spheroid could be seen set on his chest area and it seemed to be missing the armor over its mass.

His face had two red eyes and one shone brighter than the other: two horns, one of which was almost erased, were set on both sides of his head and added a "demonic" look to him.

Green data flows moved around his body and he held a massive black and green sword in his right hand which he was currently aiming at the floor in lazy manner.

Overall, he seemed to be tall and imposing.

"Blood Shadow's my _aibou_ and Rock Man's a companion, so I won't let ya get close to Rock Man… Ya will have to get past my 195cm tall mole firstly, Phantom Black!" He announced.

"You lowlife… Phantom Slash!"

Phantom Black began to spin while producing a tornado like-effect: Sigma used his gigantic sword to bounce off all hits and ended up unhurt while Phantom Black's anger was increasing.

"You lowlife~! Be gone~! Phantom Claw!"

"Gotcha."

"What!"

Sigma stepped aside and pulled the Phantom Claw with his free hand so as to drag Phantom Black closer: Sigma seemed to accumulate energy on the sword which he then unleashed by moving it in a horizontal manner: the hit met Phantom Black's upper torso and was powerful enough to send him flying towards the horizon.

"I'll remember this!" He yelled.

"Send a postcard from the Bahamas!"

"Good work, Sigma!"

Blood Shadow had showed up from behind and looked amused at the small dot Phantom Black had become before he vanished out of sight: Sigma let out a chuckle.

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah, ha~h! What a cheap guy!"

"Yeah. Stubborn, too."

"Yeah! Glad you gave him a beating."

"Oh. Harp Note."

"Oho. Ms. Singer came."

Harp Note had caught to them, too, and she looked amused at what had happened.

"Pororon! Where's Rocky?" Harp asked.

"On his way back… They'd gone to visit Boss." Blood Shadow admitted.

"Oh! By the way… Blood." Sigma suddenly called out.

"What?"

"Is it true that…?"

Sigma whispered something to Blood Shadow.

"… No. That's another lame joke by Sir Omega."

"Ah! Thought so…"

"Thought what?"

"Eh… Miss Hibiki…"

"Misora."

"Eh… Misora – chan. Can I be honest?" Blood Shadow timidly asked.

"Sure! You're Subaru – kun's friend, after all."

"Eh… Sir Omega…"

"What did Omega do this time?"

"Eh… He picked a photo and…"

"Paired me with Kizamaro – kun?"

"With Futaba – kun…"

"What! Futaba – kun? But isn't he in unknown whereabouts?"

"He tried to make it look like he was hiding because he didn't want to confront Subaru – kun over it…"

"And what did Vadous say?"

"I dunno but he obviously won't like it."

"He must be itching to reprogram Omega…"

"Sure he is… or to lock him down in the capsule… I guess his old "cold anger" behavior will end up resurfacing… We hadn't seen it before, but Dr. Lartes said Boss could scare the stronger of underground thugs with it and make them run for their skins…" Blood Shadow gulped.

"Uh. Then we better hope he doesn't go and dismember Omega because of it…" Harp Note gulped as well.

"W-well… We g-gotta go, s-so… See ya l-later…" Sigma's teeth were dancing by now.

"Later, Misora – chan… Good luck."

"Eh… Thanks."

"Ah! One more thing… Regarding Queen Tia – sensei…"

Blood Shadow whispered something to Harp Not and she calmly nodded in agreement as a response.

"I suspected it." She calmly confirmed.

"Just to be on the safe side…" Blood Shadow admitted.

"And is Jack…?"

"Yeah. Unmistakably."

"But I guess he'll wait before making a move…"

"Sure thing…"

"Good. Later."

"Later."

Both of them jumped into a higher Wave Road and headed towards the Cosmo Wave entrance while Harp Note jumped into the roof of Subaru's house and sat there as if to think about something.

"Pororon! I didn't catch any of that conversation." Harp complained.

"Sorry. But it's something a bit hard to understand for an alien."

"Guess so!" She sounded like she was shrugging.

_Like I thought… Queen Tia – sensei is scary. But I hope I can reach an agreement with her regarding her… eh… behavior. Anyway… I'm gonna have a good talk with Subaru – kun! I need ideas!_


	4. Chapter 3: Chatter

**Chapter 3: Chatter**

12:55 PM (Japan Time), Thursday August the 5th…

"… I'm home!"

"Welcome home."

"Yo!"

Subaru stepped into his house and took out his boots to replace them with his slippers before walking towards the living room: Akane was reading at a Real Wave screen and checking something.

"How was the visit like, Subaru?"

"Nice."

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah, hah, ha~h! We defeat the Evil Legion of Viruses XLV on the way back!"

"Evil Legion of Viruses XLV…?"

"Rock. You've improved that here and now." Subaru looked skeptical and unimpressed.

"Who knows?"

"I know."

"Maybe Area M will sneak into your room?"

"Stop with the impersonal nicknames."

"The Nickname War's prelude!"

"No way…"

"Nickname War…? That sounds bad."

"Oi, ma'am! Don't worry: he's skeptical but he really enjoys it deep beneath the Bertie~ mask!"

Both Akane and Subaru rolled their eyes: Subaru headed towards the room while War Rock kept on laughing.

"Hiya~!"

"Wha! Harp Note!"

Subaru found Harp Note sitting on his chair and looking around with a hint of curiosity.

"I'd been here before, yeah, but… It feels different."

"Different? I haven't changed anything."

"Ah. But I have a knack for that."

"My! Misora – chan." Akane greeted as she popped her head into the room while looking amused.

"Good afternoon, ma'am. I'm sorry I didn't call but I wanted to surprise Subaru - kun."

"No, no! I know why ya came here: to propose!" War Rock laughed.

Subaru blushed and looked at the ground: Akane looked surprised while a twitch formed over Harp Note's right eye.

"Jeez! War Rock – kun! Stop with the cheap jokes, will ya!"

"Nope."

"Pororon! As usual!" Harp muttered with some annoyance.

"Go play a game with Queen Tia!" War Rock challenged.

"I won't." She drily replied.

"Too bad!" War Rock shrugged.

"Too bad? Why?" She frowned.

"Who knows?" He teased.

"You've been snooping stuff you shouldn't look up, haven't you?"

"Ask Claw Man."

"You mean Acid."

"Acid Disaster! Mwah, hah, hah, hah, hah, ha~h!"

"Ma'am! Please don't believe this joker over here. Subaru – kun and I don't pretend anything else than being good friends." Harp Note told her with a sigh.

"I thought as much… With Subaru being the shy type he is… I guess he inherited that from Daigo – san…"

"Huh? From dad? But I always saw him… how should I put it… very confident and strong…" Subaru frowned.

"Ah. But you don't know about our time at high school…" Akane trailed off in purpose as if teasing.

"… I guess I'm better off not knowing that…" Subaru grimly muttered as if he was guessing where this was leading to.

"By the way, Subaru – kun… Do we have any news about Tsukasa – kun's whereabouts?"

"Maybe Choina… And being in a bad situation… Boss promised me that he'd do all he could to try to locate him, though…" Subaru sighed.

"I see… I came here to ask of you if you could help me find out some inspiration for my next song… That one about our adventure in Zenay III was a higher success than I'd thought it'd be."

She released the Denpa – Henkan and stretched: Akane giggled and closed the door behind them to which Subaru reacted by frowning: Harp suddenly appeared and dragged War Rock outta the room before he could react.

"What's going today?" He asked.

"I guess Harp was expecting a move from my part."

"A move…? Eh… But, Misora – chan… Didn't we say that…?"

"Relax! I just want to know if we've found a new planet or…"

"Good timing. We detected one a while ago."

"Really?"

"Really."

"We'll go?"

"Saturday."

"Fantastic!"

"Isn't it? For all we know, this excursion should be lighter. There doesn't seem to be any trace of advanced tech or civilization there… But something seems to stand out…" Subaru admitted.

"And what's that?"

"Dunno. Boss didn't tell me but I guess he's teasing us."

"Heh, heh! Typical…"

"Sure. Maybe you can wait up until we visit the planet and draw our conclusions on the matter."

"I can't wait! Tee, heh, heh."

"By the way… Is Mamorou – san alright?"

"Of course! He's as energetic as always and so Suzuka and Ice. She's making progress!"

"Why do you still roam around Okudama Studios, though?"

"A deal I signed with them… A contract until this winter… I'm supposed to make up new songs and also participate in a new season of the drama series we filmed back then. Do you remember?"

"How couldn't I? Jack was bored so he threw a Noise Card at Gonta to awaken Ox and turn him berserk, Ice got into a bad mood and ended up into Dia Iceburn with all the ensuing chaos… And Akatsuki – san saved us the trouble of the Satella Police detaining Ice as the responsible for the Crimson emission…" Subaru recalled.

Misora suddenly blew him a kiss and Subaru blushed while she giggled…

13:07 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Yo! The winning ace came!"

"Oh. Akatsuki – kun. Welcome."

"Huh? Queen Tia ain't around."

"No. I haven't seen her lately."

"Good!"

"I suspect a plot, Shidou."

"Oh. Come on."

Akatsuki Shidou and Acid stepped into the WAXA Command Room and met up with the WAXA Chief: Shidou was munching his usual "Sweet Candy" bar and looked amused while Acid sounded suspicious.

"It could be a summer cold for all we know."

"I doubt it."

"What… You're not gonna say I had a hand on it, right?"

"No. But I think she's up to something."

"Like what?"

"A strategy to approach Hibiki…"

"… Crap. I hope she doesn't try to overdo it. Else we'd get into some trouble… How lovely, really… That gal… She won't learn!" Shidou grimly muttered aloud.

"Huh? Overdo what, Akatsuki – kun?" The Chief asked

"Eh… I mean… Queen Tia can be… somewhat… jealous… maybe she'll try to cross-interrogate Misora to make sure… eh… there's nothing between us, Chief…" Shidou replied.

"Hum. Then maybe Yoiri – hakase will be able to convince her…"

"Let us hope so." Acid muttered.

Shidou's Hunter VG beeped and he brought up the Real Wave screen where Moon Disaster's face was displayed.

"YO, YO, YO! Acid Ace! Got some news for ya!"

"Don't tell me…"

"Yeah! Your fan-girl club now has 222 members! And 88% of them voted "Clark Kent VIII" as your civilian identity! The other option is "Rock Man's half-brother", with 8% of the votes! And the remaining 4% voted "dunno"… I thought I should let ya know." He laughed.

"No way… That Omega… He's the root of all trouble."

"I thought that "Demon God" we encountered on Zenay III claimed being the source?" Acid asked.

"Trouble for me! The world's trouble is that thing's work."

"Ah. Maybe."

"Maybe? There goes your lawyer behavior again."

"… I shall not comment."

"Whatever."

"YO, YO, YO! By the way! Gotta a guest over 'ere…"

"Don't tell me it's…"

"Yo! Super Hero – sama~! About to propose to Queen Tia?" Omega appeared in-screen with a broad grin.

"No way…"

"Hah, hah, hah! Both you and Bertie~ are very similar!"

"Bertie~? You mean Subaru?"

"Oh. Yeah. Subari~ and ya are similar."

"That sounds girlish!"

"You never know."

"You never know - what?" Shidou frowned.

"Ask Catastrophe Man."

"What does Catastrophe Man have to do with this?"

"Find him."

"Where?"

"Inside your desk."

"My desk…?"

"_Check it out_! And beware of the thirty-six bells of doom announcing the descent of Ms. Moon!" Omega laughed.

"I don't get the point if there's any to begin with."

"Search for it inside of your desk, Mr. Universe!"

"Yeah, yeah… Don't you have something more useful to say?"

"Jack's gonna get ahead of Futaba!"

"Futaba…? Subaru's missing friend…? Get ahead…? Oi. I don't see the fun on it."

"It's a gamble!"

"I hate gambles. That King jerk was always saying that the missions were "gambles" as well." Shidou grumbled.

"Ops. Hit a spot… Well then… I'll be going: the Denpa – kun Square guys will tell me the latest gossips. In the meanwhile… Enjoy testing out those cool sunglasses ya always carry~! _Bye – bye_! _No pain_, _no gain_! Mwah, hah, hah, hah, ha~h!" Omega grinned.

"YO, YO, YO! Nice fella!"

"Ah! True, true! And remember that ya are Moon Ace and that guy's Acid Disaster! Later!" Omega added.

"Not that again…!" Shidou cursed.

"YO, YO, YO! See ya!"

"Oi! Wait! Moon Disaster! Che! He cut me off… What guys!" Shidou cursed aloud.

The Chief rolled his eyes and sighed in defeat while Acid made no comments: Shidou was mumbling something under his breath and looked like he was thinking about something.

"I'll be right back: I suspect Omega set something inside of my deck which won't be funny."

"Roger."

Shidou ran off the Command Room while the Chief resumed working on something with his Wizard: Acid looked on and made no comments as they whispered between the two of them.

"YIKES!" Shidou's yell rang out.

"What?" The Chief wondered.

"Akatsuki! What happened?" An officer asked.

"A mouse-trap…! Omega…! You'll regret this…! Ouch! My hand…! It hurts…!" Shidou cursed.

"That Omega seems to be somewhat antiquated." The Chief calmly muttered.

"He must act by the tagline of "expect the unexpected", so…" Acid suggested with a shrug.

"True…" The Chief shrugged as well.

"Stay still… I'll open it and take it out!"

"Ugh… I'm so gonna paint his hair pink and we'll see who laughs last! He who laughs last laughs better!" Shidou cursed.

"My, my…" Dr. Yoiri muttered.

Shidou uttered some curses while the rest remained silent…

13:21 PM (Japan Time)…

"… You lowlife… Where's the data?"

"… Ga…"

"Answer me!"

"Yu…"

"Fine! I'll force you to spit it out!"

"Yu!"

"Hmpf. Why do you go to such idiotic ends?"

"Ga…"

"What? You say I'm the one going to idiotic ends by playing these games…? Hmpf!"

"Yu…"

"Shut up, Laplace!"

Solo was discussing with Laplace as he sat close to the central building of the Nanska Village Ruins: he looked rather annoyed as he yelled at Laplace and tried to keep his Hunter – VG outta the guy's reach.

"Go slice Viruses." He commanded.

"… Ga…"

Laplace flew out while Solo fumed and then lifted up his sight to scan the surroundings: he looked untrusting.

"I lately feel like there's someone spying on me… Their signature reeks of something which feels familiar… Maybe I should return to the Mu Continent and check it out again: we don't want an artifact similar to that repulsive Giga Card stirring up a ruckus again…" He muttered in a cold and menacing voice.

He stretched and walked down the steps before starting to check the surroundings as if hoping to catch the "spy" hiding in there.

"Nothing… Hmpf. Whatever. No mere lowlife can stand up to my power: if you lowlife ain't a cowardly dog, then… Come out and fight me, whoever you lowlife are!" He challenged.

The only reply was the howl of the winds sweeping through the area: Solo didn't beat an eyebrow and calmly stood there without moving for a minute or two before cursing under his breath.

"The signature's gone… They used the wind to hide their scent. Which means that they are not idiotic yet they are weak… Whatever. I'll eventually find out you lowlife's true colors…"

"Wa~h!"

A spot flew across the sky and Solo lifted the right eyebrow slightly as he saw Phantom Black fly through it while trying to regain control somehow: the wounds from the earlier fight were clearly visible.

"Why, you…! Savages…! Renegade actors…! One day…! You lowlifes will be ruled by me…! In a perfect drama directed by me…! Directed by Hyde - sama~!" He yelled.

He was soon out of sight and Solo formed a smug smile as he also folded his arms.

"Hmpf. A weak fool who got what they deserved… Something tells me that Rock Man's lookalike and that black giant fought one – on – one and showed this fool how weak it was… Fine. Dispose of the fools who get in the way… I'll have a showdown with those guys one day… But the pending issue is a rematch with Rock Man now that I have a new level of power I didn't have before… Hmpf." He muttered with a hint of amusement to his voice.

"Yu… Ga…" Laplace muttered as he reformed.

"Good. Stop fooling around because you lowlife happen to be my weapon to begin with… And, Rock Man… I'll settle my score soon enough… Maybe this weekend will be a good time to do that… Hmpf."

He chuckled under his breath while Laplace muttered something…


	5. Chapter 4: Quotidian

**Chapter 4: Quotidian**

08:28 AM (Japan Time), Friday August the 6th…

"… Wha~t? YOU go to ANOTHER PLANET and I get LEFT BEHIND? Who the heck decided that? Tell me, Subaru! Why, why, WHY~?"

"Akatsuki – san settled on that, Gonta. Don't blame me!"

"Besides! Gonta – kun! It's your mission to protect _iinchou_, remember?"

"Uo~h! Protect _iinchou_, you say? Yeah! That's my mission! Oh yeah!"

"Buro~! That's the Gonta I know! Ya needed some cheering up!"

"Hah! This guy's outdated and rusted!"

"Wha~t?"

"Ahem… The probabilities of these two quarreling clock at 77%..."

"Hmpf! Again with this silly behavior… How stupid, really!"

"Huff. Well… Looks like… They don't change, right, Luna – chan?"

"Heh. I don't, either. I'm getting cooler with every passing day!"

Ushijima Gonta, Subaru, Saishouin Kizamaro, Ox, War Rock, Pedia, Shirogane Luna, Mode and Jack had gathered in Kodama Town's main square: Gonta looked annoyed at first but, when Kizamaro brought the topic up, he switched moods: War Rock taunted him, Pedia calculated, Luna looked unimpressed, Mode rolled his eyes and Jack formed a smug smile.

"Ah! By the way, Jack… Could you try to convince Queen Tia – sensei to stop… eh… stop pressing Misora – chan?"

"Eh… I'll do what I can, but I don't guarantee any good results."

"Crap."

"I know… Neechan got into that trend back when we joined Dealer 'cause she seemed to think she had to… eh… impose her authority. Ya know, we're children of a royal family so… "

"Huh? I dunno what you're talking about." Luna frowned.

"Don't mind it, _iinchou_!" Subaru smiled at her.

"If you say so…" She shrugged her shoulders.

"Hello there: I'm not getting in the way?"

"Oh! Akatsuki – san! It's been a while!"

Shidou walked in while keeping the right hand inside of his coat's right pocket and looking slightly annoyed: Acid, as always, was calm and hovered close to him.

"Eh… Did something happen, Akatsuki – san?" Subaru asked.

"Omega."

"Huh? Omega – san?"

"He told me there was a "Catastrophe Man" inside of my desk which I interpreted as "I left something inside of the desk", so I checked it out and there was a mouse-trap!" He growled.

"A mouse-trap, ya say~? Good one! That's Omega!" War Rock laughed.

"Buro~! Shaddup!" Ox snapped.

"Wha~t?"

"Buro~! Fight like a man! If ya have the guts to go for it, that is, you wrecking lion wannabe! Showdown!"

"Ya asked for it! I'm going all out and it's too late to regret that!"

"T-this jerk…!"

"There they go again." Mode muttered.

"Probabilities of this escalating into all-out-war clock at 96%..." Pedia whispered to Kizamaro.

"Obviously! Jeez. What a duo."

"Hmpf!" Luna was unimpressed.

"Shidou." Acid called out.

"What?"

"Sigma is calling."

"Sigma? What does he want?"

"I don't know."

"Patch him through!"

"Roger."

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah! What bothersome foolish people! A scriptwriter has come to exterminate you lowlifes!"

"Hyde!" Subaru gasped.

"No way! He stole Sigma's ID code?" Shidou gasped.

"… Boo!"

"Sigma – san…!" Subaru groaned.

"Heh, heh, heh, heh… Gotcha, Barusu!" He chuckled.

"That's… ridiculous." Subaru's jaw hit the floor.

"Yeah. Totally." Jack grumbled and looked annoyed by now.

"Jackie~! Come at me~!" Sigma tried calling out.

"Shaddup." Jack growled in a menacing tone of voice.

"Hit a spot?" Sigma asked with some rising interest.

"Shaddup!" Jack snapped back with a grimace on his face.

"Oi, Sigma! What are you doing with that mike, hmmm?"

"Yikes! Boss! Eh… Nothing!"

"… Hand – that – thing – over." Vadous icily commanded.

"R-roger…"

"Scram."

There was the sound of heavy footsteps running away followed by some icy-like breathing over the line before it suddenly went dead: Subaru rolled his eyes and Jack was seemingly seeking to discharge his bad mood into something: War Rock and Ox were tackling each other by now and yelling.

"T-this JERK!" War Rock yelled.

"T-this GRUNT!" Ox shouted.

"T-this ROOKIE!" War Rock countered.

"T-this IDIOT!" Ox improvised along the way.

"T-this IMBECILE!" War Rock grumbled while making a grimace.

"T-this FOOL!" Ox growled as a twitch showed over his right eye.

"Shaddup!" War Rock snapped while he got a twitch, too.

"Shaddup!" Ox snapped back.

"I'll pulverize ya!" War Rock boasted.

"Buro~! Bring it on!" Ox taunted.

"T-this CHICKEN!" War Rock challenged.

"T-this CHEATER!" Ox accused.

"T-this COWARD!" War Rock taunted.

"T-this VANDAL!" Ox cursed.

"T-this SAVAGE!" War Rock hissed.

"T-this CLAW IDIOT!" Ox yelled.

"Oi. You two… Stop it before this becomes the Wizard War… We don't wanna have that, do we?" Shidou grumbled as he munched another "Sweet Candy" bar.

"Don't get in our way!" They snapped at him.

"No good." Acid calmly muttered.

"You mean "what a mess"… Stop being so machine!" Shidou grumbled.

"True. Maybe I should revise my speech programs." Acid admitted.

"Oi! Rock! Stop it already!" Subaru commanded.

"Ox! Stop!" Gonta yelled.

"Hmpf!"

"Hmpf!"

They both folded their arms and looked away from each other while playing the offended, to the exasperation of their Operators.

"JEEZ! Listen! You two wreckers! How many more times do we need to go over this?" Subaru asked with obvious frustration.

"Yeah! Answer!" Gonta commanded while trying to sound authoritarian.

"Hmpf!" War Rock looked to the left.

"Hmpf!" Ox looked to the right.

"No good… This town IS MAD!" Jack sounded defeated by now.

"Really… These guys brought the madness along!" Luna fumed.

"They don't change." Kizamaro shrugged.

"Anyway! What time do we leave tomorrow?" Shidou switched topics.

"9 AM, Akatsuki – san." Subaru politely replied.

"Good! Now I hope Ms. Leech doesn't show up to give me another lesson on diets." He formed a smug smile.

"Shidou…" Acid grumbled.

"Oh. You know I'm right, Acid." Shidou began to sound annoyed.

"You aren't, Yoiri – hakase says." Acid insisted.

"Don't mind the Doc." Shidou tried to dismiss the topic.

"Ignoring people is rude, Shidou." Acid reminded him.

"Oh. Come on…" Shidou made a dismissing gesture.

"Subaru – kun! Isn't your Hunter – VG ringing?" Luna brought up.

"Huh? True… Hello?" Subaru asked as he replied to it.

"Hoshikawa Subaru…" Solo showed up onscreen.

"Wha! Solo!" Subaru gasped and looked nervous.

"… What are you up to?" He icily questioned.

"Eh? Me? Eh… Well… Truth is… We were gonna check out a planet tomorrow and…" Subaru replied while his teeth danced.

"Worth my time?" Solo cut him.

"Eh… Dunno… No signs of technology anywhere in the surface and looks pretty barren… But there doesn't seem to be any _daimaou_ guy who wants to stage that show once again…" Subaru summed up.

"… Hmpf. Fine… And if I wanted to snoop around… How do I get there to begin with?" Solo questioned while lifting an eyebrow.

"Eh… Boss thought of that, so he'll leave a machine you can use for free travel between Earth and that planet…" Subaru told him.

"Hmpf. That man read me, you say?" Solo folded his arms.

"Y-yeah… Well… Eh… You can be somewhat predictable, too…"

"Hmpf. Whatever… I'll decide that myself…" He shrugged.

"O-of course! It a-ain't like I'm trying to boss you around!"

"Fine. But, remember… I will test my new techniques in you lowlife one day, so ready your neck…" Solo dully told him.

"Y-yeah… Come anytime…" Subaru nervously replied.

Solo abruptly cut the connection and Subaru sighed in relief as he placed the left hand over his chest for some seconds.

"Solo makes me feel so nervous…!" He muttered.

"Bah! Who's gonna be afraid of that punk?" War Rock scoffed.

"I am. End of the story, War Rock." Subaru shot back.

"Heh! Then ya need some lessons in handling fear." He teased.

"I don't: it's natural for people to have fear." He argued.

"There ya go again with the "it's natural" motto… Ya sound like an apprentice lawyer! Heh!" War Rock laughed.

"Stop with the lawyer joke! Lawyers are serious people!"

"Serious as in seriousness?" War Rock grinned.

"Jeez!" Subaru groaned.

"Heh, heh, heh! I'm a genius, yessir!" He laughed.

"Buro~! Ya are no more than a clever wannabe!" Ox scoffed.

"Who's the clever wannabe, bull wannabe?" War Rock grumbled.

"You!" Ox shot back while folding his arms in a taunting manner.

"Your aunt!" War Rock countered with a shrug.

"Wha~t?" Ox yelled.

"Your hide!" War Rock taunted next with a smug smile.

"This guy…!" Ox cursed.

"…is clever!" War Rock made a smug smile.

"Is there no stopping them or what?" Subaru cursed.

"If only I could stop Moon Disaster and his "fan-girl" club… Life would 1000 times easier, I swear it! Sheesh! What a club!" Shidou grimly muttered.

"That'd be wise." Acid suggested.

Subaru and Gonta sighed in defeat while the others kept on fighting…

09:09 AM (Japan Time)…

"… BY ALL THE…!"

"What's wrong, Mamorou – san?"

"Someone's been stealing my _bento_ starting last week!"

"E~h? But… Who would…?"

"A prankster who wants to eat double!"

Misora had crossed paths with Urakata Mamorou as he stood in the middle of a corridor, lifted his arms and yelled in frustration: she looked surprised at his replies.

"Speaking of which… Tengo – san always eat a lot…" Suzuka timidly brought up as she joined the conversation.

"Tengo? Who's that?" Mamorou asked while frowning.

"The new lighting effects assistant…" Ice concreted.

"Then I'm gonna bring this to the direction: someone who wants to make others suffer hunger can't be accepted here!" He yelled.

Mamorou stormed off while Misora, Suzuka and Ice looked on with obvious surprise.

"I'd never heard such a thing before." She muttered.

"I hadn't, either." Suzuka admitted.

"Why would someone do that?" Ice asked.

"Because people can be greedy…" Misora replied.

"Ah. Guess so…" Ice shrugged.

"Anyway… I'll go prepare my next chapter's lines." Suzuka smiled.

"Good luck!" Misora encouraged.

They blinked each other and eye and parted ways: Misora whistled a tune and looked amused…

09:49 AM (Japan Time)…

"… I got some info, Ka… They're coming tomorrow. And we should be careful: it'd seem Solo has some interest in joining the party a while later after the main party comes."

"Hmpf! Perfect… We'll settle the score with that bothersome watchdog of the sages…"

"Ku" and "Ka" were talking inside of the room containing the workstation and sounded amused.

"Did you find anything in that satellite?" "Ka" asked him.

"No. Apart from the navigational software and control software there wasn't any pre-recorded data save for the custom frequency it uses to contact the Subspace HQ: a gigantic spaceship orbiting Earth and dotted with a stealth camouflage field…" "Ku" admitted.

"Do we know at least how many of them will come?"

"Yeah. Hoshikawa, Hibiki, Akatsuki and the whole Subspace crew… I guess the three androids and the three Satella Police members will be the ones to carry out actual exploration, so… There'd be six. But if they repeat their tactic of working in pairs, then maybe we could corner just two of them right here and fight them." "Ku" suggested with a grin.

"Good thinking, Ku… And maybe we could try to bring the pet along: the thing may be able to do something useful."

"Speaking of which… I saw it roaming around the room with the deposits containing the stuff about half an hour ago… It merely had a look at them and then hid in the X – Ray spectrum…" "Ku" admitted.

"Hmmm… Maybe if we bring out a deposit it will have an instinct to protect it and roam around that area?" "Ka" suggested.

"Not a crazy idea… Huh? Another EHF signal…"

"Don't tell me that guy's back at it…" "Ka" groaned.

"YO, YO, YO! Moon Ace: live from the Japan Cosmo Wave!"

"I thought he was Moon _Disaster_." "Ku" seemed to frown.

"Yeah! So, Mr. Ace! What are the latest poll's results?" Omega asked with obvious amusement.

"YO, YO, YO! Out of 230 people, 90% voted for "A: Clark Kent – sama~!" while 6% voted "B: Hoshikawa Subaru's half - brother" and the remaining 4% voted "C: Dunno!" … That's all, folks!" He announced.

"And remember: our poll's question is the following… "What's the real identity of Acid Disaster, our Super Hero – sama~?" … Stay tuned! The answer will be revealed by the fan-girl club members climb up to 250 and above! Mars Warrior will tease you girls: the guy's the last person you'd expect him to be~!" Omega told them.

"Acid _Disaster_? Moon _Ace_? What silliness, really!" "Ka" sounded rather annoyed.

"OMEGA~! What are you doing with the satellite, you and Moon Disaster over there, huh?" Vadous questioned.

"A live news report for Planet X, Boss!" Omega replied.

"Omicron!" Vadous corrected with some annoyance.

"Omicron? So this planet is gonna be named Omicron… Not bad. I guess Rock Man came up with the name." "Ku" grinned.

"Bertie~ decided that?" Omega asked.

"It was an idea: I settled for it! Now come back here and leave Moon Disaster to sing to the Viruses!" Vadous ordered him.

"YO, YO, YO! My new extravaganza is 10 hours long!"

"10 hours long…! Moon Disaster: you gotta be singing copycat versions of hit songs, don't you?" Vadous sounded baffled.

"YO, YO, YO! Pro secret, _Danna_!" Moon Disaster laughed.

Omega and he chuckled, Vadous fumed, while "Ka" and "Ku" merely formed smug smiles…


	6. Chapter 5: Grim encounter

**Chapter 5: Grim encounter**

10:04 AM (Japan Time), Saturday August the 7th…

"… Huff… Huff… What a hill!"

"Yeah… But we're close to the top… Something's giving off a weird signature and it disrupts the portal-generating device, so we've had to start from 300 meters away…"

"But this hill with a 5% rate elevation was the killer…"

"Now I'm glad we're in our Denpa – Henkan forms…"

"Sure… Huh? Kya~h!"

"W-what's wrong, Harp Note?"

"Rock Man! Look at _that_!"

"By all the…"

"Huge!"

"Pororon! What the heck is that?"

Harp Note and Rock Man had been climbing a steep barren hill somewhere in planet "Omicron" and had reached the entrance of what looked like a small round valley surrounded by low earthly spears thus allowing for just one spot to be used as entrance and exit: but what surprised them was something which had been left behind and leaning against the right side of the wall.

"That looks like… a shell…? An animal's shell…?"

"Let's take a closer look…"

Both dared to come closer and examined it: the "shell" was huge and colored black plus some white patterns near the legs and the main body, yet it was _empty_.

Four long thin black armored legs emerged from it as well as some kind of appendix in the back.

A cone-shaped piece of armor covered the part where the head supposedly used to be: the interior was not very tall but wide enough to accommodate a crouched person.

"Cool!" War Rock laughed.

"I don't see the "cool" on it." Harp complained.

"Look… It's full of wounds… But these wounds look like… Energy bullets shot a high speed and rate… And shotgun shells… Cuts, bruises, cracked spots, fissures, cracks… This thing didn't go down peacefully." Rock Man deduced as he crouched to examine it.

"You mean "this thing's _shell_ didn't go down peacefully"… The true creature was inside and… Huh? The insides have some remains of the blue radioactive stuff… And there are some patches of it, too…" Harp Note climbed atop a leg and used it as support to look directly inside of the empty shell.

"Maybe the thing inside of it is still around here?"

"These wounds look like they have some months… But it's worth a try checking the valley out…"

"Mwah, hah, hah, hah! Tremble, competency! War Rock – sama has come to fire all of you guys!" War Rock laughed.

"Very funny." Harp drily told him.

"What… Ya are always so dry! Be more independent!" War Rock challenged her.

"I'm fine as I am, War Rock." She fumed.

"Hah! Oi! Subari! Hurry it up and blow them up!"

"I'm Subaru, not "Subari", Rock!"

"Oi! Ramiso! Hurry it up, too!"

"Jeez! Misora, not that Ra-something thing!"

"Heh, heh, heh! I'm a genius, yessir!"

Rock Man and Harp Note stepped into the valley: the walls surrounding them were over two meters tall and the upper edge was filled with those earthly spears thus creating a chainsaw-like edge: a smooth wall about eight meters tall had been erected in front of them and it looked like it'd been made out of concrete: the valley looked about ten meters wide per eight large.

"Whoa! What's that?"

"That's…!"

A black metallic cylinder over a meter and fifty tall with two large pyramidal bases stood in the middle of the valley, and given how the center section's walls were made of glass, they could see the bluish substance inside of it: its composition was reminiscent of that of crude oil.

"The blue stuff… And someone's place this here in purpose: the wall in front of us was built in purpose… Someone's been here some time before us…" Rock Man muttered.

"But who?"

"That'd be us, Hoshikawa Subaru! Been a while, huh?"

"Same motto for you, Hibiki Misora! Been a while…"

"Who…?"

"Show your hides!"

Two figures suddenly became visible atop the concrete wall just as some clouds moved past the local sun's position and provided some dim lighting to the area which was reminiscent of the early dawn in Earth: the new lighting helped distinguish the figures better.

"Don't you remember us?"

"We gave you guys some trouble a few months ago!"

"No way!"

"They're alive?"

"Yeah! I'm Kurayami!"

"Ku", or, rather, Kurayami, looked like Rock Man's Black Ace form but missing the wings and having the pendant replaced by the _kurayami_ _Kanji_.

The shades had been tinted purple, too, and were thick enough to hide his gaze.

He had a smug smile on his face, too.

"And I'm Kanaya!"

"Ka", or, rather, Kanaya, was a copy of Harp Note colored black and purple.

The shades had gained further thickness and the hair turned reddish.

"B-but…! The program we found in Mu…! It should've destroyed you two back then!" Rock Man gasped.

"Ever heard of "doubles," Hoshikawa?" Kurayami taunted.

"Doubles! They tricked us!" Harp Note gasped.

"Yeah, Hibiki. We then fled and have been hiding here ever since then to stabilize our forms, train and adapt to the current era, which is why our speech pattern has changed." Kanaya grinned.

"Then… You two lured us here with this container!"

"Yeah! But the probe finding us was mere coincidence. Even if it hadn't, we'd shown up on Earth sooner or later! We stole a spacecraft from a strange building being demolished and used a navigational chart on it to find this planet… That's how we travelled here!" Kurayami explained with obvious amusement.

"And we got a pet, too." Kanaya added.

"Pet, you say? You mean the thing inside of that shell?" Harp Note deduced.

"Yeah! It took us a lot of effort to damage the shell, but we've been unable to defeat the "essence" inside of it. But we'll introduce you to it, anyway!"

"Come out!"

There was a flash and something showed up in front of Rock Man and Harp Note while hovering above the terrain.

"W-whoa!" Both gasped.

The creature in front of them was radically different from the shell they'd seen earlier: it had a central spheroid-shaped body covered in a blue membrane and six bluish tentacles extended from its sides: a reddish brain-like organ was set inside of the main body.

Its eyes were two yellow spots which seemed to be "burning" and it lacked nose or mouth: it didn't seem to be taller than a meter or meter and fifty yet it looked creepy and powerful.

"This thing's membrane is impenetrable! It can't be hurt by any weapons you lowlifes carry and I doubt the powers of the so-called "Meteor Server" being able, either!" Kurayami grinned.

"And now you die: here and now." Kanaya grinned as she drew a Gatling gun and aimed it at Harp Note.

"Let's go!" Kurayami rallied as he drew a pump shotgun.

"Go!"

"Crap! Mad Vulcan X!"

"Impact Cannon!"

A battle quickly ensued in which Rock Man and Harp Note tried to be on the defensive while improvising how to shake off their assailants: an energy-based barrier formed on the valley's entrance and cut their exit off as both Denpa – Henkan users tried to stand away from their enemies and avoid letting them come closer.

"Heh, heh, heh. There's no running away, Rock Man!"

The "essence" was hovering above the container and caressing it with the tentacles before it suddenly arched the body upwards: it emitted a pitched shriek.

"Huh? What?"

It created a ring of flames which quickly spread across the valley and set the substance on the edges on fire thus reducing the fighting space.

"This is a bittersweet trap we've set up!" Kanaya exclaimed.

"Crap!" Rock Man cursed.

"The radio lines are jammed, too…!" Harp Note cursed.

"Feeling despair?" Kanaya taunted.

"Who is gonna feel despair?" She shot back.

"Hmpf. Prideful woman… Whatever…"

"… Crap. This is worse than I'd thought…" Harp Note gasped.

"Catching up, I see…"

"Same thing over here…" Kurayami taunted.

"Crap!" Rock Man cursed.

"I dunno what they're saying but I'm going all out! Oi! Subaru! Hit them hard and Finalize!"

"I can't: the interference will block up my signal to the Black Hole Server where Meteor G's data was transferred to! I can Noise Change into Wolf Noise, but… If he hits me with a Flame – Elemental Attack then it'll be nullified!" Rock Man whispered.

"Whatever you come up with is in vain!" Kurayami boasted.

"We'll see about that! Sword Fighter X! Sword Fighter 3!"

"Uack! Ugh! Grah! You lowlife…!"

Rock Man delivered some sword hits at his enemy which damaged him and forced him to step back: Rock Man Noise Changed into Wolf Noise and quickly brought out a Giant Axe Battle Card to hit Kurayami and made him land into the flames: Kurayami yelped and ran out while he tried to put the flames out: he hissed and looked angered.

"You lowlife…! Take this! Pain Hell Flame!"

"Crap! Holy Panel, Super Barrier!"

Rock Man formed a Holy Panel under his feet and protected his body with the Super Barrier Battle Card: a copy of Jack Corvus formed in the middle of the air and began to make flames rain down around Rock Man, who estimated where they'd land at and dodged them the best he could: he finally avoided being hit and he sighed in relief.

"Phew… Close, too close…!"

"Oi! Subaru! Watch out!"

"Huh? What?"

"Ox Tackle!"

"No good!"

A copy of Ox Fire tackled into him and destroyed his Super Barrier to then make him end up half-embedded on a wall: Kurayami suddenly appeared in front of him and aimed the cutting edge of a _katana_ at Rock Man's neck to make a cut there: he then licked the blade and looked eager.

"T-this guy's a leech…!" He cursed.

"Now… You will descend into the _Naraku_… The living _Naraku_…"

"Think I'll let you? Hyper Cannon!"

"UACK!"

The blast at close-quarters sent Kurayami flying until the crashed against the container and dropped it into the ground: something made a CRACK sound and the barrier disappeared all of a sudden.

"I see! The jamming device was attached to the container!"

"You lowlifes…!"

"Wing Blade! Take this, fake!"

"Crap!"

Acid Ace shot a string of bullets to Kanaya before ramming her into the same spot Rock Man had been stuck at.

"Here comes the cavalry~!"

Blood Shadow ran inside of the area and looked around as he aimed his shotgun: Rock Man and Kurayami were battling using Edogiri Blade Battle Cards while Harp Note and Kanaya had resorted to attack each other with Stun Knuckle Battle Cards: the monster suddenly popped out of nowhere and loomed over Blood Shadow.

"What the heck are ya?"

"I dunno but it seems to be the source of this blue stuff…" Rock Man called out.

"Try to find a way to shake it off!" Harp Note called out.

"Hah! Whatever you lowlifes do is in vain: that thing is invincible! No weapon can harm it!" Kurayami exclaimed.

"Yeah! Die trying!"

"Hmmm… What was that proverb again…? Oh. "One's greatest weakness if one's self"… One's self… Of course! That's what it means! This'll be easy to solve. I've got the means right here…" Blood Shadow muttered before smiling.

He headed over to the contained and kicked the central part several times to form a crack on it and to allow for the blue stuff to pour out: he suddenly placed his shotgun's barrels there and seemed to be sucking up the stuff.

"What!" Both enemies gasped.

"I see!" Both Harp Note and Rock Man realized.

"Oi! You! Come! Bite me!" Blood Shadow taunted it.

The thing seemed to get annoyed as it generated more rings of fire while Blood Shadow dodged and then aimed his shotgun at it: the thing seemed to look confident all of a sudden.

"Take this!"

Blood Shadow shot two continuous stream of high-pressure stuff at it.

"GUO~H!" It emitted a guttural sound of agony.

"I knew it! It absorbs this stuff but there'll be a moment where the absorption capacity will be overloaded and its membrane's chemical composition will become unstable! Then it'll be vulnerable and I can beat it up!" Blood Shadow exclaimed.

"I won't…! Huh!"

"Hey! We're in the middle of a duel."

"You lowlifes!"

"Think I'll… Huh!"

"We're also fighting!"

"Clever bothersome woman!"

Kurayami and Kanaya had tried to go stop Blood Shadow but Rock Man and Harp Note kept them busy enough.

"Be gone!"

The creature suddenly began to move around while creating a myriad of "afterimages" which danced from one side to the other as bursts of light emerged from it and it eventually exploded to give way to a more primitive form consisting of a yellowish mass set inside of another members and tentacles coming out of everywhere.

"Diehard monster… Well then… The final blow… Grah!"

The creature suddenly "plunged" its tentacles into Blood and began to tug at something including his helmet and "skin" while Blood struggled to aim the shotgun.

"Let go of me! Take… this…! The final… blow…! FIRE!"

"Go for it, Blood!"

He shot one last blast at the thing which then recoiled and ended up ripping several segments of Blood Shadow's armor and the circuitry beneath it including each leg, boot, arm, forearms, shotgun, chest armor, shades, helmet and skin: Blood Shadow simply collapsed in the ground.

"Blood!"

The thing suddenly began to grow in size at an alarming proportion and they stopped fighting.

"Subaru! Hibiki! Pick Blood and enter the portal! That thing is gonna implode and you don't wanna be there when it does that! Hurry it up: there's less than a minute left!" Vadous quickly ordered over the radio in a hysterical tone of voice.

"Yikes!"

"Crap!"

The fight broke out: Kurayami and Kanaya jumped over the concrete wall and vanished behind it while Rock Man and Harp Note quickly carried the disabled Blood Shadow and ran towards a purple-colored gateway which had formed inside of it: the thing was growing and agitating in a violent manner as the stolen components still remained attached to the tentacles.

"Let's go, Harp Note!" Rock Man rallied.

"Yeah! We'll settle the score with those two later!"

"And I'll tell them their hairstyles are lame!"

"Pororon! You be quiet." Harp snapped.

"Wha~t?"

Rock Man and Harp Note ran inside of the gateway which vanished barely five seconds later: the monster then imploded and the shockwave engulfed the whole valley thus setting it on fire: a sonic boom expanded into the air and cut through it as dust was formed and the earth rumbled before everything fell silent and the only thing left were the burning flames and the bluish smoke rising towards the skies…


	7. Chapter 6: Death Shadow

**Chapter 6: Death Shadow**

12:55 PM (Japan Time), Saturday August the 7th…

"… Boss… How is Blood like…?"

"His repairs are proceeding smoothly and he should be ready in just another 45 minutes…"

"But… It's been bugging me. How could the thing plunge its tentacles through Blood?"

"I guess something on it interacted with the atomic composition of the armor and forced a gap which robbed the armor of most of its thickness and repulsion capability…"

"Ah… So that's how it is…"

"Bah! Who cares? That thing's busted!"

"I wonder about that."

"Wha~t?"

"Come on, War Rock… This isn't the time for jokes. Even Omega and Sigma have remained quiet."

"Shaddup, Super Man!"

"What "Super Man", huh?"

"Shidou."

"Jeez."

"War Rock… You're a walking problem."

"Hmpf!"

Subaru, Vadous, War Rock, Harp, Misora, Shidou, Acid and Vadous had gathered in a metallic room containing several portable chairs plus a metallic desk with a control panel and air display system built into it set in the middle of it: the east-facing wall had the entrance and exit armored doors built into it.

"Nobody appreciates my efforts!" War Rock played the offended.

"That's because you only go and troll people…" Subaru rolled his eyes.

"By the way… Do we know where those two went to?"

"Satellite imagery was obstructed by the fire, so I sent Omega to check it out… There's a hatch and, below it, a gigantic cargo supply tunnel. There was a garage filled with Jeeps, too, and it looked like it'd been used recently… He left a program trying to decode the security clearances for the workstation… It looks like someone came ahead of those two and built that… I wouldn't be surprised if they were mining the blue stuff. It seems to have many properties such as energy self-generation…" Vadous detailed to them.

"Energy self-generation…" Shidou looked intrigued.

"But! If absorbed by a living being, it will cause "mutations" to its DNA and cells given its highly cancer-like properties… It seems to create some kind of parasite which lodges on the CNS and brain and which can be stimulated using a wide range of ultra-sound frequencies… In short: remote control is possible." Vadous added.

"Sounds like a hijack program, even." Acid commented.

"Where could this have come from?" Misora asked.

"I suspect a meteorite is our answer: those two seem to have spent the time cracking security lockdown of most of the tunnels leading to an area named "Ground Zero"… And you can catch the rest."

"The point where the meteorite made landfall… They either built a camouflaged facility over it or it became a cave over the time… The shock from it could explain Omicron's crazy geography and why the substance seems to present even in the very air as very small doses… But the spot we visited was higher in height and so the concentration had fallen to harmless levels… We should carry masks or something like that next time we go down there…" Subaru deduced.

"Heh! I'll go and…!" War Rock began.

An explosion suddenly rang out from somewhere and everyone froze in place as an alarm started to buzz.

"Warning. Intruder alert. Intruder alert. Warning. Unknown hybrid life-form has intruded Storage Bay 04…" An auto-voice reported.

"That's where we stored a container we were able to retrieve intact thanks to its high-security armoring…! Hybrid life-form…? It ain't those two…" Vadous muttered.

"It ain't me, either." Omega admitted through the radio.

"Me, neither! We're both checking on Blood." Sigma added.

"Lockdown initiated."

"Energy barrier lockdown?" Shidou wondered.

"True. The arches are more than architectural… They can generate security barriers isolating patches of the HQ…"

"Warning. Biohazard detected. Container in Storage 04 has been breached: initiating Storage 04's sealing and oxygen removal to expel into outer space: cleansing chemicals will then be employed to decontaminate the area…" The auto-voice announced.

"Good thinking, Black Ace!" Vadous smiled.

"… Warning. Warning. Intruder's signature has changed: high contents of unidentified compound building up on its body…"

"What? It absorbed that stuff?" War Rock wondered.

"Sounds like it…"

Another explosion rang out and the alarms became even more hysterical: all lighting turned red, too.

"Security breach! Security breach! Intruder has broken out of Storage 04 and is heading to Storage 05!"

"Huh? But that was the only container… Storage 05… What the heck's in there, anyway? Black Ace! Inventory list of Storage 05!"

"Battle Card Storage HDD…" Black Ace listed.

"Crap! This thing is aiming to absorb Battle Card Data and become even more powerful…! Screw containment protocols! I'm gonna go stop that thing NOW!" Vadous cursed.

"Wait, Boss! Please allow me. I think that maybe I'll be able to counter it better and, with the Meteor Server's power, be able to turn the tables around…" Subaru offered.

"Well… That ain't crazy thinking… Fine. Storage 05 is in the 1st deck and we're on the 3rd deck's Briefing Room 06… Hmmm… Yeah. Take the Central Hub and head towards the NNW: you should come out right next to Storage 05." Vadous instructed.

"Roger, sir! Let's go, Rock!"

"Oh yeah! Let's bust!"

"Denpa – Henkan! Hoshikawa Subaru, On Air!"

Subaru transformed into Rock Man and then came out of the room: there was another explosion towards the right and the alarms rang out again while Vadous came out as well, surprised.

"Warning. Warning. Security breach into Storage 14…"

"Huh? How did the intruder get up here so quickly and without breaking anything else?" Vadous wondered.

"Dunno…" Rock Man muttered.

"Easy! The guy's a sorcerer! Mwah, hah, hah, ha~h!" War Rock laughed at his own joke.

"Very funny, really!"

"Attention… Slight temperature drop detected… 5 degrees drop detected… Atmosphere is cooling…" Black Ace reported.

"Go, Subaru!"

"Roger, Boss!"

Rock Man ran into the storage and found it to be filled with condensed air thus creating fog-like effects and blocking his sight: he did spot a figure giving him the back and meddling with a machine: a low breathing sound could be heard emanating from the figure.

"… Battle Card Data download complete: all "Illegal Class" Battle Cards downloaded…" The machine beeped.

"Who goes there?" Rock Man demanded.

"… So… You came… Shooting Star Rock Man…" A slightly distorted voice announced.

"You're not Kurayami or Kanaya."

"Those two? No… I am something else… An evolved life-form with overwhelming power…!"

"Evolved life-form…? No way…!" Rock Man gasped.

The fog cleared and the figure turned around: all blood left Rock Man's face and the air seemed to turn chilly all of a sudden.

"Correct."

The figure standing in front of him seemed to be over a meter and eighty tall: had a pale blue color to his body.

His helmet had no face and had a turquoise - colored slit shaped like the Alphabet letter "Y" was set on its center while it also had a dome-shaped form above it.

His shoulders were shaped like two round spheres with a cell-like pattern drawn into them: the armor was thicker around the chest and seemed to have two ellipsoid lines which vaguely resembled eyes set on it while a small round spot with six membrane-like formations on it made one imagine it was a mouth.

The left arm had some lines running down the sides before ending in a very thin and skeleton-like hand.

This had a living round turquoise eye with a black pupil set atop the palm.

While, in comparison, the right arm bore what looked like a built-in buster colored both turquoise and navy blue.

The waist had a navy blue colored piece shaped like the Alphabet letter "V" built on it.

The legs had two round turquoise spots on each side plus above and below the knee which also resembled eyes: his feet were slightly curved in shape.

"I have no name… But I bring death where I go!"

"No way…! You're the life-form which stole the components from Blood, then…? But how did you…? Denpa – Henkan…?" Rock Man gasped.

"Correct… Yet… Do not mistake me for that companion of you lowlife or those other ones… I am not a childish existence! I am a fully evolved existence wielding overwhelming power… An incarnation of "death" itself… Maybe _shinigami_ would be the correct word to describe my existence…" The enemy announced.

"And because the nanomachines can recreate pieces of armor and some of the electronic brain's components were also stolen… Your brain became a mix of electronic and living components and you could simply "access" the information Blood carried including his memories… Thus gaining a human-like level of thought and ability of self-though and speech…!" Rock Man deduced.

"Hah! Correct, Rock Man… Yet… I had no real weapons, so I did come here to download the data… I developed a short - range warp ability which allowed me to jump from a lower sector to this higher sector... Now I shall test my powers against you lowlife… Get ready! You lowlife shall not run away from this fate!"

The enemy aimed the left hand at the doorway: bluish particles formed into the air before gaining thickness and interconnecting with tendrils to then form a net which spread across the doorway which blocked out all exiting the room.

"Hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah…"

"Oi! Subaru! Focus! This guy's serious… I'd never felt such a bizarre signature like this one's before… We need to be careful or the guy is gonna mincemeat us!" War Rock warned.

"Hah! Taste fear!"

The enemy aimed the cannon and built up energy on it before shooting out a string of black-colored missiles towards Rock Man: he began to shoot some of them down and tried to dodge.

"Double Stone!"

Rock Man summoned two stones which blocked up some of the missiles before they were destroyed: Rock Man locked into his enemy and quickly delivered two hits using a Break Saber X and a Dancing Blade X: the enemy was stunned for a split second and Rock Man took profit to execute his NFB attack.

"Elemental Cyclone!"

Rock Man delivered three to four hits before landing back on the ground and adding one charged attack to sum up: the enemy emitted a growling sound and seemed to snap out of it.

"A mere miscalculation regarding speed… But the same strategy shall not work twice: that is the way a foolish one thinks!"

"This guy is starting to get in my nerves." War Rock muttered.

"Stay quiet." Rock Man whispered.

"The Afterworld is waiting for you lowlife… I shall suck your life energy out of your body! Hah"

The adversary built up energy on the left forearm and shot a red-colored beam towards Rock Man which attached to his chest and got stuck there all of a sudden: Rock Man gasped and his balance seemed to falter as he tried to remain standing.

"HP drain device…!" Rock Man cursed.

"Hah, hah, hah… Be gone!"

"Not yet, ugly! Double Eater! Beast Swing X!"

"Ugh! You lowlife…!"

War Rock had materialized and on the enemy to then hit him thus hitting and shattering the device on the left forearm: the imitator howled something inhuman and its body began to glow with a bluish glow and built up energy again: the enemy started to hover some centimeters over the ground and suddenly accumulated power on the buster before shooting a volley of quick projectiles towards Rock Man: he brought up his shield and made the shots bounce off around the room: his enemy seemed to get impatient.

"You lowlifes… You think I am a foolish one, do not you?" He icily questioned while starting to sound annoyed.

"No." Rock Man drily replied.

"Then be gone!"

"Drill Arm X! Finalize! Black Ace! Black End Galaxy!"

Rock Man struck the enemy when he was rushing forward, thus stunning him and being capable of entering the Meteor Server thus adopting his Black Ace form: he created the black vortex and then swept through the space while collapsing it: his enemy howled and dropped into his knees while the body frizzled with energy out of control.

"What… power…! But… This is not over, humans! I shall… find a way to leave this world and… you lowlifes' planet shall… become just like this one… such is my duty… my _raison d'être_… spread the "will" of this power throughout this endless universe…!"

He dropped into the ground and broke down into bluish particles which hovered into the air and then into an air duct: the barrier covering the door dispersed and Vadous rushed inside.

"Subaru! Are you alright?"

"Somehow, Boss… This one was… an enemy like none before… His power is terrifying…!"

"… _Death Shadow_. I'm gonna give the guy this name. He's the opposite of Blood, so I'll name him Death."

"Death… Shadow… Fits the guy…" Rock Man muttered.

"Che! Ran away, the jerk…" War Rock grumbled.

"Better that than dying in the attempt."

"Che! No sense of thrill…"

"Thrill leads to disaster: I've told you that already!" Rock Man protested with obvious annoyance.

"Hmmm!"

"Are you alright, Subaru - kun?" Misora asked as she ran inside and looking nervous.

"I am, somehow…"

"Phew."

"Pororon! And I guess our bad boy ended up unsatisfied." Harp calmly deduced.

"Obviously." Acid shrugged.

"That's War Rock's style, after all!" Shidou grinned.

"Ahem, ahem! Anyway… The repairs can wait. One thing is sure: we can add Death Shadow to our priorities list. I'm sure Kurayami and Kanaya must be heading towards that "Ground Zero" area, so we should investigate the tunnels and try to catch up to them: we can lock them this time around instead of having to delete them." Vadous exposed a course of action.

"Sounds reasonable…" Omega calmly commented as he came in and glanced around at the wreck.

"Uh. Not even I could've turned the atmosphere into something so creepy and deadly… That guy's no joke… We should stop him, and, the sooner, the better…" Sigma grimly muttered.

"Hah! War Rock – sama will bring that guy's weapon in a rusted platter: wait and see!"

"That won't do, Rock!" Rock Man complained.

"Why?" War Rock grumbled.

"Because he won't let us come closer to him…"

"Che. Always busting my strategies…"

"That wasn't a strategy, but, rather, a boast." Vadous corrected.

"And ya are Mr. Universe, right?" War Rock grumbled.

"No. Cool it down."

"I know! Dragon and I will invent Cooled Curry Rice with Cooled Soy Sauce to then patent it!" War Rock joked.

"We're not in the mood to joke." Omega looked dull and unimpressed, for once.

"Good! I see you're recovering bits of your past personality." Vadous looked pleased with it.

"Yeah. I thought it was about time… I've been thinking about that "Demon God"… Nebula Grey… And I'm sure he's planning to make our challenges increase in difficulty as time passes." Omega admitted.

"Sure thing… That monster-like thing will do anything to keep us busy and help spread "evil"… That Death Shadow guy is the latest proof. He even admitted it openly!" Sigma sounded worried, for once.

"An enemy capable of processing any kind of Battle Card Data and holding all of Blood's memories and knowledge… Overwhelming radioactive power radiates from his body… And he will surely stop to think something twice before striking… The type to take a stone bridge apart just to check it's solid enough to cross…" Vadous paced around the destroyed room.

"Death… Shadow… His mere presence foresees "death" itself… I just felt my body temperature drop, even… A _shinigami_ in the flesh…!"


	8. Chapter 7: Burai comes in

**Chapter 7: Burai comes in**

13:13 PM (Japan Time), Saturday August the 7th…

"… Subaru. The Hunter – VG's ringing."

"I suspect who's calling… Solo? The portal is ready."

"Hmpf. Straight to the point. Fine. Where's that thing at?"

"Where are you? We can program it to form in front of you."

"Hmpf… Saving me the trouble… Do you lowlife think I'll be "grateful" or any crap like that?"

"No. You don't wanna waste your time, so…"

"Hmpf! Whatever. Nanska Ruins."

"Roger."

Subaru and the others had reunited again on the briefing room when Subaru received a communication from Solo: he kept on looking unimpressed and having a poker face on as he always did when he contacted him.

"Starting loading… I'll send him to the entrance of the valley: he'll immediately get picked on by the exoskeleton and end up checking the surroundings: maybe he'll even trace those two." Vadous muttered as he typed into a Hunter – VG he carried.

"Good. Blood's repairs should be about to end, too, so… We'll soon be able to chase them, too. We should try to locate other entry/exit points to corner them from several flanks." Subaru suggested.

"Ready."

"Fine."

Solo cut the call while Vadous checked something over the Hunter – VG before inputting some other commands.

"Now we wait."

13:18 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Yu…"

"Hmpf. So this "Omicron", huh? Hmmm? Ah. Huh? T-that's…! Is that an exoskeleton…?"

Burai had reached the top of the hill and spotted the exoskeleton standing on the same spot Rock Man and Harp Note had found it: the flames on the valley had mostly died down and a large and deep pit had been opened in the middle of it: Burai jumped over it and examined the concrete wall while lifting an eyebrow.

"Concrete… So there's something artificial here, after all… Fine. This could be worth my time." He grinned.

He crouched and then jumped over the wall to spot the ramp leading downwards and the hatch which he quickly opened: he jumped inside and closed it before starting to explore the tunnel.

"Hmmm… This tunnel must've taken quite a while to build and it seems to have been intended for cargo transportation… Huh? A garage… Let's check it out: this is getting interesting!"

Burai stepped into the garage and immediately spotted a spot where one of the Jeeps was missing: he checked the adjacent room and began to type into the workstation: live camera feed popped out displaying Kurayami and Kanaya struggling with an armored door painted purple and with the "biohazard" sign drawn into it.

"Hmpf. The defective experiments… So they fooled us and they were alive this whole time…"

"… Heck! Where the hell did this door pop out from? It wasn't on the maps! Don't tell me I need to crack a new code again…!" Kurayami was cursing aloud.

"And this blocks the elevator descending to "Ground Zero", too! These guys have been way too cautious to prevent anything from coming in or out from there!" Kanaya hissed.

"Hmpf. So they want to access the source of the radiation but found an unexpected obstacle… If I pick a vehicle, I can catch up to them in about 30 minutes… But that's "suggested speed"… I'm sure I can cut it if I go at max speed." Burai grinned.

"Che! There's a garage here: let's park there and use that workstation to try to figure out how to open this bloody doorway!"

"Fine."

"And don't come up with _that_ again."

"I'm not in the mood, anyway. And this is serious."

"Whatever!"

Burai shut down the workstation and didn't spot some bluish particles floating across the air and then heading towards a nearby room: an explosion soon rang out along with alarms.

"Warning. Warning. Biohazard alert. Biohazard alert. Container on Garage 03 breached… Initiate lockdown of surrounding areas…" An auto-voice announced.

"What the hell?" Burai cursed.

"… Yu…" Laplace muttered.

"Something's there? Obviously… Containers don't explode at random whenever they want to…"

Burai rushed into the room and spotted Death Shadow using the arm cannon to drain the blue stuff inside of the breached container: he or it seemed to be absorbed on the act and didn't realize Burai's entrance into the room nor him drawing the Laplace Blade.

"Hmmm?"

Death Shadow suddenly stopped and hovered some centimeters above the ground before turning around and looking at Burai who felt how the air's temperature dropped and fog began to form in the room as well as that barrier.

"Burai of Mu…" Death Shadow announced.

"Who are you lowlife?"

"My name is Death Shadow: I bring "death" along with me… I have been reborn into this evolved form!"

"Death Shadow…? You lowlife look similar to…"

"Blood Shadow, you were going to say? Obviously. I stole several components of his mechanical body which served as basis to form my new body and expand my intelligence… But do not mistake me for Rock Man, Blood Shadow or that other imitator named Kurayami… They are all childish existences but I have lived for long ages… My power almost overwhelmed Rock Man… But given how you lowlife claim on being someone above them… Then prove it to me!"

"Hmpf. Whatever. I'll have a thrill."

Death Shadow suddenly built up energy and shot past Burai, bounced off a corner and suddenly morphed into a spheroid having two grooves on the inner sides and two white spots on the outer sides: there was a small space between each half which emitted light as well.

"What!" Burai gasped.

An oval-shaped object with a red blinking LED and white body formed on the ground and it suddenly exploded thus releasing a pure energy shockwave which sent Burai flying across the room until he crashed against the wall and getting stuck there: Burai hissed and tossed the Laplace Blade towards the spheroid Death Shadow had become and hit it twice: the spheroid grew in size and both halves opened to reveal Death Shadow's compacted body: he spread and the spheroids fused back with his shoulders as he began his infamous missile bombardment at Burai: his Mu Rejection blocked some of them but others hit Burai: he cursed and tried to hit Death Shadow only for him to explode and reappear from behind Burai: he shot some more missiles which impacted his back and Burai groaned as he turned around to face the opponent.

"Double!"

"Correct. Die!"

"Crap."

Death Shadow then shot out that reddish beam of energy which latched onto Burai and began to drain his HP: Burai suddenly grabbed it and pulled it towards him to then deliver his four-hit-combo at Death Shadow: the enemy recoiled but didn't seem to mind the blows: Burai then used the Laplace Blade to cut the string and panted.

"Hmpf. Is that all?" Death Shadow taunted.

"You lowlife… Die!"

Burai jumped across the air towards him and managed to plunge the Laplace Blade into the right shoulder thus leaving a wound there: Death Shadow didn't seem to feel it to begin with and loaded up energy on his arm cannon which he shot at close-quarters aiming at Burai's body below the torso: Burai groaned and dropped into the ground to then stand up and sweep the area with the Laplace Blade: Death Shadow merely took the blunt and then countered by forming a bluish sword over his left forearm and trying to hit Burai's neck: the Mu Rejection popped out and he was repelled: Burai used the chance to jump up and land while provoking a shockwave.

"How was that one like?" Burai taunted.

"Hmpf. Childish."

"What!"

"Such childish power shall not overcome my own power… Yet… I can see that we are but mere pawns on the hands of an even more powerful being which rules over that which you foolish life-forms name "evil"… The result of a foolish human's ambitions which has overcome Time-Space and will never fade…" Death Shadow dully announced.

"Nebula Grey…!" Burai cursed.

"Now… The Afterworld is waiting for you lowlife's anger-filled and fury-filled soul… Be gone!"

Death Shadow morphed into the spheroid again and jumped into the air while building up energy: he shot forward at an impossible speed and hit Burai head-on thus propelling him towards the barrier and getting stuck there: the "tendrils" began to lodge in several parts of Burai's body and generate a bluish mass over his skin.

"What the hell!"

"Hmpf. You lowlife shall be tested… A program which shall randomly alter and mutate your very genetic code shall be lodged in the CNS… And if you lowlife are not strong enough to control it, then you lowlife will become a mindless feral existence under my control like all those life-forms plaguing the depths of these toxic oceans…" Death Shadow laughed.

"You lowlife… I won't lose to such idiotic tricks! Hra~h!"

Burai charged up energy and suddenly generated several shockwaves through his right fist: they blew up the tendrils and he was able to land in the ground while the substance dried and fell off his body: Death Shadow didn't seem surprised.

"Hmpf… It did not work. Whatever. I shall destroy you lowlife and then I shall take care of those other foolish life-forms…"

"Boast while you can! Hah!"

Burai rolled across the ground and suddenly hit the knees of his enemy before delivering a blow near the waist: Death Shadow howled something inhuman and suddenly began to shoot out a continuous stream of flames towards Burai who barely dodged by ducking.

"Che. This guy's no joke…" He grumbled.

"Hah. Did you lowlife think I would be easy prey? A cornered beast is more dangerous than a predator, foolish life-form!"

"Shaddup…!" Burai growled.

"Be silenced! Death Spiral Cannon!"

"What!"

Death Shadow built up power on the arm cannon and shot a spiraling stream of energy which hit Burai's chest and tossed him into the ground all of a sudden: Death Shadow then drew the sword and tried to hit Burai's neck again only to be repelled by the Mu Rejection again: Death Shadow began to sound frustrated and annoyed.

"Heh. You lowlife won't take me down so easily!"

"Hmpf! Boast while you can!"

Death Shadow morphed, yet again, into the spheroid and began to shoot around the room while laying a string of small metallic spheroids which caused minor explosions yet he used those to distract Burai and hit him from different spots as if trying to overwhelm him.

"Che! Bothersome meddling guy…! Stay still so that I can destroy you already!" Burai hissed.

"True! That anger…! That fury…! That hatred…! That frustration…! That powerlessness…! They are what foolish life-forms experience just before stepping into the Afterworld I rule! Die!" Death Shadow laughed.

He dropped a high-power explosive, but, Burai, in a sudden move, grabbed it and attached it to Death Shadow thus having the explosion destroy the spheroid and forcing him to return to his normal form: he'd gained some wounds and was howling something.

"Hmpf. Using my weapon against me… Well then… I shall destroy you lowlife with your very own weapon…! Dancing Blade X! Step into the Afterworld!" Death Shadow hissed.

He used the Battle Card to try to hit Burai but the guy predicted where the blade would show up and began to use close-quarters attacks on Death Shadow who was obviously getting annoyed as well.

"You lowlife… Toying with me?"

"Hmpf. Who knows?" Burai taunted.

"Let this farce be ended! I shall destroy you lowlife's body to make sure you cannot escape the Afterworld!"

"Hmpf. You lowlife are a lame _shinigami_… A novice."

"Novice! Me! Why, you…!"

"Take this! Hra~h!"

"Ugo~h!"

Burai hit the topmost spot of the helmet and opened a crack there while Death Shadow howled something: Burai then made his right fist glow in a pale purple light before trying to plunge it through Death Shadow's body which he managed to do: he began to move it around but frowned because he seemingly didn't find what he was looking for: Death Shadow recovered and bombarded Burai with the missiles again thus tossing him into the ground.

"Hah! You lowlife forgot something… I am not a Denpa Body right now but a cyborg! I might have a humanoid form, but my core is protected against such tricks because I saw about it on Blood Shadow's memory files… You lowlife's efforts were in vain!" Death Shadow claimed.

"Crap." Burai cursed.

"… Hmmm?"

Death Shadow suddenly stopped and looked around for some seconds before making a chuckle-like sound.

"… Finally! The last door has been opened. Now I can return to the source of my power and gain more power there! Those two life-forms actually made me a favor without acknowledging it… I have spent enough time toying around with you lowlife… I shall settle the score and then go reunite with the source of my power…" Death Shadow announced as he aimed the arm cannon towards Burai's face.

"Those bothersome guys…!" Burai hissed.

"Die."

"Wrong."

"What?"

"Take this!"

"Impossible!"

Burai suddenly made Grave Joker appear on the field and he built up energy before shooting a crimson laser stream of energy aimed straight at the Death Shadow and the blue stuff scattered around his feet: it detonated and the combined attack opened some wounds on Death Shadow's body: he collapsed on his knees while howling and making his body shine with energy to finally drop face-down on the ground and dissolve into particles which flew into an AC duct.

"… I won… somehow…" Burai muttered.

"… Yu… Ga… Ra…" Laplace muttered.

"What? Ah! Those guys… Yeah. I need to chase them. Let's pick one of these Jeeps and head to "Ground Zero"… And something tells me that guy isn't totally dead, either. The sooner I get there, the better, because if that guy gains more power, then it'll become complicated to handle him next time around." Burai replied.

He rushed into the garage and jumped aboard a Jeep which he ignited: he exited into the tunnel and picked the southern direction while he checked a cutaway map displaying various levels of tunnels connected by cylindrical elevator shafts: there was a cave-like formation on the very center plus a tall vertical shaft built over it which linked directly to the planet's surface.

"Hmmm… I see. There's a mining installation down there and the vertical shaft was to allow quick mining to then bring it to the research facility and store it on these modules. Whoever planned it this was methodical and wanted to take out the maximum amount of profits from this or so it seems…" He deduced aloud.

"Ga… Ra…"

"What? EHF signal? Someone's trying to contact me?"

"Yu…"

"Burai?" Subaru asked.

"Rock Man, huh…"

"Eh… I got in the way?" Subaru asked.

"No. I just had a fight with Death Shadow. I barely won yet those two have unlocked the last obstacle blocking the path to "Ground Zero" and are gonna try to obtain more power there. I'll try to catch up to them somehow. Join the party if you lowlife want to. I don't care if you lowlife try to handle that Death Shadow jerk again." Burai dully told him.

"R-roger."

"Yo! Burai! Tell those guys that they're fired 'cause Clark Kent – sama~ is gonna sweep the ground with them still standing on it! Mwah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, ha~h!" Sigma laughed.

"SIGMA! SHUT UP!" Vadous roared.

"Yikes! Sorry, Boss..!"

"Hmpf… Sweep the ground with them still standing on it… That's more like my style." Burai formed a smug smile.

"Ga… Ra… Yu…"

"What? The game…? Shut up, Laplace. I won't let you lowlife sabotage it anymore!" Burai grumbled.

Laplace fell silent while Burai speeded up and soon reached the spot where one of the doorways had been at: he entered a cargo elevator and stopped there as the round-shaped platform began to descend down the illuminated shaft: Burai could spot another set of two doors higher up which indicated that there was more than one entrance.

"Descending towards Hell, huh… Fitting, ain't it? Whatever… Those two defectives will soon be taken care of by me. I won't forget how they ran away in a cowardly manner… Nobody laughs at my face and doesn't regret it later…"

He formed a smug smile and chuckled under his breath…


	9. Chapter 8: Chase

**Chapter 8: Chase**

13:54 PM (Japan Time), Saturday August the 7th…

"… Fua~h… I feel better after resting for a while. We tried to overdo a while ago."

"I still wonder what happened earlier with that biohazard alert. Who could've caused it?"

"Dunno."

"Anyway… Let's keep on towards "Ground Zero" because I want to get there as sooner as possible: the Satella Police guys and the Subspace must be closing on us by now."

"No doubt… We'll only need another 30 minutes to get into the truck storage garage, and, from there, descend into the core."

"Heh, heh, heh. We're just one step away from gaining even higher power and become almost unstoppable!"

Kurayami and Kanaya climbed out of a set of hammocks while still having their armors on and stretched before heading towards the garage while commenting between each other what had happened.

"Hmmm?"

The sound of an approaching vehicle could be heard, so both rushed to jump into one of the Jeeps and start it up to then exit into the corridor and speed down it: the lights from the incoming vehicle became visible and Kurayami gasped as he (while driving) had a look at the rearview mirror to recognize Burai driving the other car along with Laplace.

"Crap! Burai!"

"No way!" Kanaya cursed.

"Let's hurry up! Shoot the car!"

"I'd done that even if…"

"I know the rest!"

"Hmpf! Gatling gun!"

Kanaya shot some rounds towards Burai but he quickly began to make wild moves from left to right thus making her miss most of her shots: Burai had a smug smile on his face and looked amused.

"Hmpf… So it's come down to a vehicle duel… Fine. Something new worth my time…" He muttered.

"Yu…" Laplace merely muttered.

"Battle Card: Mad Vulcan X!"

"Slow."

Burai quickly spun the wheel to the right and ran as close as possible to the right wall while Kanaya failed in all of her attacks: she drew an Impact Cannon next which hit the ground close to his Jeep but he'd already skipped to the left side of the tunnel: Kanaya uttered something under hear breath and tried again another two times with different results: he did hit one of the side-view mirrors and blew it off but the other shot merely made a dent on the bumper: Burai looked amused the whole time which made a twitch show up over her right eye.

"T-this JERK…!" She cursed.

"Uh-oh." Kurayami grimly muttered.

"Forget speed limits! Full throttle!" She snapped.

"Y-yeah! I'm o-on it!" Kurayami gasped.

"Broadcasting in live: are Omicron's citizens respectful with the laws concerning speed limits on highways? Or are they hardcore racers who wanna show off?" Omega's voice suddenly rang out through the radio as if he was a reporter on the scene.

"Guess the second." Burai amusedly muttered.

"Thanks for your opinion, _Danna_! Go and bust through those cheap guys taken outta Windows 2205's recycle bin: they should've stayed there and enjoy their retirement in the Bahamas!"

"OMEGA!"

"Ops. Catastrophe Man came through the backdoor."

"Stop fooling around!"

"My bad."

"Hand that mike over!"

"Hold on." Omega suddenly replied.

"What?" Vadous grumbled.

"Is this a classified WAXA operation?" He amusedly asked.

"No."

"Then, legally, there's no reason to stop a reporter from doing his job, is there?" He brought up.

"… Well…" Vadous seemed to doubt, for once.

"I'll take that as "yeah". What does Claw Man have to say?"

"I am not Claw Man!" Acid protested.

"Lawyer Man?" Omega joked.

"No!" Acid shot back.

"Hit a spot, eh?" Omega teased.

"Maybe." He drily replied.

"Oho. Moon Ace told me Acid Disaster's fan-girl club members have gone over the 266 mark! But when we told them who ya were they ended up yelling "NO WAY~!" in a synchronized manner!"

"Stop with that joke already, will ya?" Shidou protested.

"Hibiki: is Futaba hiding in your cupboard?"

"How dare you!"

"Omega! That was rude and vulgar! Stop being so Occidental!"

"Bertie~! Is Jackie~ gonna write you a confession?" Omega asked in hushed conspiracy tone.

"… No, sir." Subaru drily replied.

"War Rock! Aren't ya itching to go and rip through that cheap F – Rank imitator?" Omega invited.

"Oh yeah! My blood's boiling!" War Rock replied.

"Stop imitating Juurou – san, will you, Rock?" Subaru grumbled.

"Brad Shad! I see you've recovered!" Omega congratulated.

"Blood Shadow, sir!"

"Bloody Shadowy and Stigma make a fearsome duo!"

"S-Stigma…? But I'm Sigma!" Sigma sounded baffled.

"This guy…!" Vadous cursed.

"Hmpf. Today I feel like hearing to some rambling." Burai muttered while sounding amused.

"Ga… Yu…"

"… Those guys are nuts!" Kurayami could be heard cursing as the same voices rang out of his Jeep's radio.

"And if even Burai feels like that, he'll get jumpy in battle and sweep the ground with us standing on it…!" Kanaya hissed.

"Hmmm? Ah! Chance! Here we go~!"

"Huh? What are ya gonna do? Oh! I see!"

"What!"

Burai looked ahead to see two curved armored doors which had been partly unlocked and gave way to another elevator shaft: the enemy Jeep passed through the extremely narrow gap as they began to close and Burai cursed as he violently pressed the accelerator pedal: the car speeded up and barely made it through the cap.

"Uh-oh."

Burai, however, realized that the elevator had already started the descent and there was a gap of about six meters between the spot he'd entered through and the platform: the car's speed made it shoot way past the middle point of the shaft and fell in an arched trajectory which barely avoided a frontal collision with the front wall and landed on the platform right behind the enemy car: they looked behind them with obvious surprise and Kanaya quickly drew a Sword Fighter X Battle Card to fight Burai at close-quarters over his Jeep's engine.

"Bothersome clever guy!" She cursed.

"Hmpf. Defective experiments." Burai shot back.

"Dr. Frankenstein's leftovers strike~!" Omega joked.

"OMEGA~!"

"That was lame." Shidou muttered.

"Totally." Misora added.

"Omega – san's humor is too Occidental… I'm about to go mad." Subaru muttered.

"Mwah, hah, hah, ha~h! Run for your legs! The Zombie Club's curse has started!" War Rock laughed.

"BRAINSSSS!" Omega joked.

"I'm about to explode~!" Vadous hissed.

"Ops. Akatsuki: call the bomb disposal squad."

"Very funny."

"Very original, ya mean."

"Nope."

"Nope, none, nope~!"

"This guy's nuts. Definitely." Kurayami cursed.

"Who knows, Kumi?" Omega joked.

"What did you call me?" He cursed.

"Doesn't Kaya name ya like that, too?"

"How dare you!"

"Hmpf." Burai kept on having a smug smile on his face.

"Why, you…!" Kurayami cursed.

"Che!"

"And this stupid elevator needs another 6 minutes to reach the bottom level!" Kurayami hissed next.

"The thirty-six bells of doom are waiting for ya~!"

"What thirty-six bells of doom?"

"The ones in the Mu Continent which clock down towards you guys' destruction, ya see~!" Omega joked.

"Hmpf. Not bad." Burai approved of it.

"It's the countdown to Ra Mu's resurrection: he'll come out and crush you using his cheat codes!"

"Oho. Terrific." Shidou sounded amused at this one.

"And Crimson Dragon will join the party, too~!"

"Uh-oh. That thing brings doom along it." Subaru muttered.

"And Princess Andromeda will dethrone Hibiki~!"

"How rude!" She cursed.

"Omega…!"

"Oho. And Queen Tia will rise to the top of the charts with her melancholic songs about… eh… "_THE Art_"… Heh, heh, heh."

"At least you didn't say it outright!" Vadous fumed.

"How could I? The editor made it clear this is a "T" rated series, after all, Boss!"

"If you mean TV Series, then it ain't the editor who decides that but the scriptwriters." Vadous corrected.

"Oho. Then Hyde decided this."

"Hyde? No way. The guy's in the North Pole making speeches to the penguins by now!" Sigma laughed.

"Yeah. Wouldn't surprise me…" Subaru sounded amused.

"Remove the rubbish from the way and make way for the true fighters: is that your policy?" Burai amusedly asked.

"Sure thing!" Sigma confirmed.

"Like Stigmatic Man said…" Omega made up another nickname.

"That sounds lame, Sir Omega!"

"Too Occidental." Vadous grumbled.

"Boss! Ya seem to be obsessed with the "oriental" theme!"

"Obsessed? How silly! Aren't we _Japanese_ to begin with?"

"Ah… True… Forgot that! My bad memory plays tricks on me, ya see, Boss!" He played the victim.

"An android can't have "bad memory" to start with…"

"And Colonel Campbell decided that?" Omega asked.

"I dunno who Colonel Campbell is." Vadous fumed.

"Detective Zazaza's CO…" He trailed off.

"Oho! A new detective series, ya mean?" War Rock asked.

"Sure thing: channel 11 at 17:05 PM!"

"Not gonna miss it! Come out, grunts! Detective Roger is gonna round ya guys up and into the police station! Grrr!"

"… Now!"

"Have at ya!"

Burai looked up since he'd been blocking Kanaya's sword attacks without much trouble as they suddenly sped forward and inclined the Jeep towards the left to pass through the gigantic doors as they opened: Burai jumped down into the cockpit of his own Jeep and waited until the doors opened a bit more to continue the chase: he dodged some shots and grinned.

"Go! Laplace!"

"Yu…"

Laplace morphed into blade form and shot forward: there were two hit sounds plus the moaning of damaged hover engines: Burai grinned and sped up only to then hear another Jeep's engines further ahead and an explosion's sound: he reached a spot where he had to brake given how another Jeep had been blown up and left in the middle of tunnel along with another two Jeeps: the flames were burning too fiercely and were too tall to be crossed over.

"Crap. There was another garage here from which they drew the vehicles and used them to stall… I'll need a way to extinguish this fire and remove the wreckage…" He muttered.

"Maybe it's about time we headed down there, too." Subaru suggested over the radio.

"Bertie~ wants to have a tale with Burai~?" Omega joked.

"A tale…? Omega – san, please! Stop that, sir!"

"Omega! Why do you always butt into people's privacies?" Vadous cursed with obvious bad mood.

"Dunno. Maybe because there are so many magazines and rumors scattered out there~?" He shrugged.

"Grftjx! This guy…!"

Burai managed to enter the garage through the side door and immediately found a fire extinguisher which he used to spray the flames with: they began to die down and were totally extinguished after a while: he sighed in relief and then checked the workstation.

"15 minutes from the refinement plant right next to the "Ground Zero" cavern… Hmmm? There's a note here… "All data, systems, constructions and artificially-made objects are property of the "Secret Empire" and no-one outside them is allowed to use them. We will know if you try and we will eventually make you regret challenging IQ – sama…" … IQ? I think I've heard that name somewhere before." Burai quoted.

"IQ… Ice Queen…! Anaya Maria…! That witch…!" Vadous began to hiss in an icy tone of voice.

"… Wasn't that the criminal who intended to kill Rock Man and that companion of his just to plunge the world into a depression and try to mass-sell a placebo effect anti-depressant medicine?" Burai recalled with a gasp.

"Correct! My "Commander" and the leader of the so-called "Secret Empire" encompassing the whole of Japan's underground activities while possessing a fortune of tens of millions! I myself made sure to dethrone her and make sure she stays rotting forever in the jail to pay for the lives of youths she destroyed! A tyrant! A despot! A madwoman! That's what she was!" Vadous described.

"And the reason I went underground roughly a year ago… They wanted to hide me from her." Subaru muttered.

"… And with good reason, really. I was present when the arrest and she did look and sound like someone who thinks that can control and shape reality as they want to." Shidou admitted with a sigh.

"But what would that woman gain from setting this up? It must've taken a lot of effort and time…" Burai frowned.

"Hmmm… Maybe she wanted to use that stuff for some experiments but didn't get to, luckily enough…" Vadous guessed.

"Maybe the answers are at "Ground Zero"…" Subaru suggested.

"I don't doubt that anymore. If they bothered to lockdown the sector, then that must be the spot where Death Shadow's "beast" form originated from: the remains of the meteorite which brought the guy there…" Misora guessed.

"Fine. I'll be waiting for you guys to get down here by trying to dig out more information from this machine… I don't care what those two defectives do: they're defectives, after all, and I doubt them being able to gain any power." Burai told them.

"Okay! Last one buys _sake_! Yahoo!"

"Oi! Omega! Hold it!"

Omega could be heard running off the room while Vadous growled something undecipherable over the radio.

"That guy…! He'll get into a pinch."

"Maybe Master and Kir Osh – san should come along?" Subaru suggested to Vaodus.

"Why not… You three and those two should suffice. I want to keep the _Three Musketeers_ here as backup crew." Vadous decided.

"Roger, Boss."

"Too bad, Brad Shad!" Sigma told him.

"Sigma…!" Vadous icily warned.

"R-roger, Boss!"

"Hmpf. An amusing crew, even…" Burai muttered.

"Yu…"

He sat down on a chair as he began to type into the workstation and formed a smug smile.

_This is getting pretty amusing… Heh, heh, heh…_


	10. Chapter 9: Background

**Chapter 9: Background**

14:15 PM (Japan Time), Saturday August the 7th…

"… So! There's one thing I've been wondering about… Vadous. Where did you come out from and just who was this Anaya Maria woman who you say wanted to assassinate Rock Man just for the chance to stage the massive selling of fake medicines?"

"Well… My tale goes back 7 years ago…"

"I'll listen. I don't feel like discussing since I just had something worth my time in a long while."

"Fine. I'll try not to bore you with the details, either."

Burai was using the workstation in the garage and speaking with Vadous using it: he looked calm and collected while Laplace was apparently examining a Jeep's engine.

"… I'd been an agent under her command, a special agent… I was supposed to be a representative and check on the grunts who managed each business to remind them that there was no room for double-crossing moves like trying to modify the accounting records. Maria's rule was accompanied by blackmail, murder, extortion, kidnapping, torture and sometimes leaks to the police. I was like that during the first two years and then she "loosened" me to pair me up with Lartes, who had a more medical background. She told me to set up my own business and prove to her that I could handle it on my own. I did so and that was when the "Subspace" began existing… That was around the year 2200, with the century change… I spent another two years building up this gigantic ship and setting up facilities on the dimension named "Subspace" while also recruiting Kir Osh, who had a rather technical background, and Dragon Hell as onboard cook. Omega was also built around that time." Vadous began explaining.

"Hmmm… But something made you realize that woman was using you as fall grunt and a mere pawn in her chessboard. Am I right?"

"Correct."

"When was that?"

"Took me a while… It wasn't until January of the year 2203, slightly over two and a half years ago… It'd been picking my nose for a while the fact that the typical business of drug and weapon trafficking didn't seem to account for more than 37% of the total profits. There had to be something else. I thought of the "obvious" but that just added another 21%, thus amounting to 58% of the total profits… I then dared to go and question one of the grunts off the record with threats and he confessed: they'd also handled the "obvious" with lower margins."

"Lower margins…? You mean…?" Burai gasped.

"Yeah. They robbed youth of their lives and tried to brainwash them into being mere puppets… Others were used as lab mice for her twisted genetic engineering experiments… I immediately realized how mad she really was and began to harbor the desire to bring her down and make her pay for it. But it couldn't be done just overnight: I kept the act up and began to calculate how to cut myself off economically from her plus destroying her business…" Vadous made a grimace.

"What Dealer did must've been pale in comparison."

"Yeah. Totally. King was nothing compared to Maria. She could've crushed him the very instant he began his activities but kept him as it was because it amused her."

"So. When did Rock Man come into the picture?"

"Last year. We had the FM invasion on January, you came into the picture in April and the Meteor G Crisis was in May. In about half a year, Hoshikawa Subaru jumped from being a totally unknown young man plagued by a depression to a courageous "hero" which everyone admired given how honest he was. Maria caught wind of it and soon began to think on her "master strategy"…" Vadous grumbled.

"And that was why, after Sirius was beaten, you made him go underground and finished your plan to bring down that woman?"

"Correct."

"How did you?"

"Well… Regarding the business, I realized that, if Maria's control vanished, they'd immediately go back to fighting each other to death and try to achieve dominance. A _Sengoku_, you could name it. I decided to let them destroy each other and let the police finish up the work. But there was a harder thorn to take care of: the _Palace_…"

"Palace?"

"A facility built using a meteor as basis… Could jump at will around the Space-Time, remain cloaked and be untraceable… Many prisoners were kept in there along with the toughest of her pawns… Escaping from that place was really impossible given the high degree of security. The only way to be able to really stop her was to force them to land on Earth and be arrested. That's why I kept the act up."

"And what did you do to hide Rock Man?"

"I blocked his memories and altered his genetic code to make him pass as someone else. I let him rebuild his personality from scratch while feeding him with some slightly altered memories and let him reach the obvious conclusion that he was taking part in some kind of secretive program or had been as an imitator to Rock Man…"

"Hum. And was then when you built Sigma and Blood Shadow?"

"Yeah. I'd had the design in mind for a while and took the opportunity to finish them up. Blood Shadow's role was important: as you could check back then, he tried to act up as if he was Rock Man. Anyone who only did a superficial investigation would believe the Satella Police reports in which he was identified as Rock Man who'd had a makeover."

"Clever. Even I got fooled. And I'm not slow at thinking, either. So I guess that woman got fooled, too."

"Yeah. Totally. Never questioned anything. She called me up for one of her "gallant" dinners and had me be the errand guy who had to check up the informatics department's security. I took the chance to sneak a program I'd been working on."

"And that program must've been an insider which allowed you to take control, right?"

"Yeah. I made them run into an ion storm which knocked out all electricity save for life-support onboard and, taking profit of the blackout, rescued all prisoners and retrieved their belongings while making some sabotaging work to ensure they'd be unable to abort the new course which was going to be uploaded into their computers…" Vadous detailed.

"And they got arrested." Burai deduced the rest.

"Bingo. Oh! I forgot to say I'd recruited another man into the organization: Mark Zendong. He takes care of the security in the Subspace per se and is a good tactician. I used to keep an underground city in one of the planets but had it vacated because I'd never agreed with the idea of having to shelter some insidious criminals and provide them with their caprices, so I sent them back to Earth. I also shut down a "cold sleep" facility which was an excuse to have a lab to conduct experiments on people."

"Sounds like those crazy guys back in the 20th century…"

"Totally. But all tyrants are the same." He shrugged.

"Yu…! Ga…! Ra…!" Laplace interrupted.

"What? You've made the Jeep turn on and don't know how to shut it down? I thought you were smart, Laplace." Burai sighed.

"… Ga…"

"Can't be helped. Wait there. This talk ain't over yet."

"Of course."

Burai walked over to the Jeep and interacted with its controls to shut it down and close the engine's lid: Laplace muttered something and Burai directed a dull glare at him.

"Go study another system." Burai ordered him.

Laplace muttered something and slowly flew outta the room while Burai sat down on his earlier post.

"Why did Rock Man call "Master" to one of your subordinates?"

"You mean Lartes. Well… During his time living on Lartes' mansion, he was trained into boxing, _kendo_ and target shooting so he was, in all senses, Lartes' disciple and still continues to be."

"Hmmm… I see. Yet… Rock Man and Blood Shadow… Are they equal in power?" Burai questioned.

"Well… Let's see… Blood can't do Noise Change but he can use the Meteor Server nevertheless… Yet, they've never faced each other mainly because there was no need for it." Vadous shrugged.

"Hum. Fine… Are those guys on their way?"

"Yeah. But I can't open portals so deep underground, so they need to come over there with the Jeeps."

"Whatever. I don't mind waiting, for once."

"Then, to kill the wait… Omega's special report from Nowhere in Particular!" Omega came into the line.

"Omega! Shut the trap up!"

"May I remind you of the liberty of expression law?"

"But this ain't a serious report!" Vadous protested.

"It's a report, anyway!"

"Something tells me you're exploiting a loophole."

"Looping loops of loop!" Omega invented.

"Stop making up those mottoes…"

"Tell Dragon to come down into Earth." Omega challenged.

"Tell him yourself." Vadous annoyingly told him.

"I don't need to! I don't need to eat!"

"Che."

"Oh! By the way, Boss… Did you know that…?"

Omega whispered something and Vadous got a twitch over the right eye to show his bad mood.

"And you expect me to believe Kir Osh would do that? May I remind you that Blood's an android and that he has no… "item"… whatsoever? If he hasn't then that can't happen." Vadous refuted.

"You never know!" Omega teased.

"What do you mean, I never know? I designed him!"

"Are ya sure it wasn't Dr. Zhivago?" Omega suggested.

"No. Go mop the docking bays." Vadous ordered.

"My, my! Mop Man will show up?"

"Stop making up "Men"!" Vadous yelled.

"Stigma Man sounds cool! Don't ya think so, Boss?" Omega told him with a broad grin.

"Stigma Man? By all the… Get out!"

"Through Evil's Door?"

"GET OUT!"

Omega ran out giggling while Vadous fumed and quickly picked a glass containing apple juice on it: he drank some of it before sighing and articulating his fingers to try to relax.

"That guy drives me nuts."

"No wonder."

"… Boss! This is too much!" Blood Shadow protested.

"What's up, Blood?"

"Sir Omega, Boss!"

"What did he say?" Vadous questioned.

"More like what he _did_, Boss." Blood Shadow grumbled.

"Did…? Don't tell me…" Vadous seemed to suspect something.

"Yes, Boss! It's as you think." Blood Shadow confirmed.

"That H-like jerk… He's gone too far. I'm going to handle this: find something to chat with Burai."

"Roger, Boss."

Vadous ran out at a quick pace while Blood Shadow sat down on the command armchair: Burai directed a smug smile at him and he seemed surprised.

"So! What does Rock Man think of you?" Burai asked.

"Eh… As a companion?"

"In general."

"He respects me. I respect him. We get along. I had some trouble at the beginning because I thought he'd look down on me given how I'd tried to pose as him and was an exact copy of him physically speaking… But that didn't come to happen. He encouraged me instead."

"Hum. Sounds like Rock Man…"

"Yeah. That's his manner."

"I seem to recall he was looking for someone."

"Yeah. Futaba Tsukasa – kun. He was host to the FM Gemini. He's been avoiding Subaru – kun ever since then because… Well… He thought he'd "betrayed" Subaru – kun… They did meet in the Nanska Ruins during the Mu Continent affair but then he vanished from the radar and we suspect that he's being kept hostage by some gang in a foreign country… We're doing what we can to locate him." Blood Shadow admitted.

"Why did that Futaba guy feel like he'd betrayed Rock Man?"

"He had another personality… Futaba – kun was abandoned as a newborn and the very knowledge of it shook him so deep…"

"And that personality was supposed to be his "evil" side?"

"Yeah. He named himself Hikaru. He liked to hit people and get into brawls. He despised bonds and friendship. In that aspect, you and he are similar." Blood Shadow compared.

"I won't deny that."

"Well… One day, Futaba – kun and Subaru – kun had been chatting in Dream Island and he'd told Subaru – kun of his origins… Subaru – kun, who was opening up after 3 long years, suddenly suggested to form a Brother Band with him. Futaba – kun requested to be given a while to think of it. He was unsure if he could bring himself to tell him about Hikaru…" He narrated.

"And that Hikaru guy tried to exploit Rock Man's _naïveté _to approach him and try to retrieve that so-called "Andromeda Key", then?"

"Correct. He took control at that moment but War Rock sniffed the scent left behind by Gemini. They then became Gemini Spark via Denpa – Henkan and stirred up some chaos. Subaru – kun was forced to fight them and, after that, felt depressed. Futaba – kun disappeared and didn't show up until the end to try to amend a bit for what he'd done. He then went off to Nanska to try to train himself by keeping Hikaru repressed and taking profit of the remaining program of Gemini left into him. But Futaba – kun didn't feel like really making up for the trouble caused back then and that was their last meeting before his disappearance." Blood Shadow narrated.

"Hum. So that's why he was looking so hard for the guy by questioning Denpa Bodies if they'd seen "two black and white humanoid Denpa bodies with golden armor in one of their arms"…"

"Correct. But all results were zero… And that's when we began to chase the foreign line because there were similar cases... Maybe they caught him unaware or something similar taking profit that he was against violence and not precisely strong. Another reason why "Albert – kun" went through the training which still continues nowadays… Subaru – kun tries to look strong, but this is bothering him."

"I see."

"Yo! Sorry for the wait."

"About time. Hmmm… You two must be Lartes and Kir Osh."

"Correct."

"Hum. Cool Jeeps."

"Kir Osh… Do you have to bring up your car mechanic background again…?"

"Come on, Doc… Don't look at me like this is bad."

Rock Man, Harp Note, Acid Ace and two men clad in armors similar to that Vadous sported had come into the room at that moment.

"This is Dr. Lartes." Rock Man introduced.

Dr. Lartes' age seemed to be around his mid-twenties and he stood at close to a meter and eighty tall: his jet black hair had a style slightly reminiscent of Subaru's and his eyes' irises were brown in coloring.

His armor had the Alphabet "L" character drawn over the chest (and painted in purple coloring) and he also carried a sword sheath attached to the right side of his belt.

"I'm Kir Osh."

Kir Osh fell short of Dr. Lartes by five to six centimeters despite being on the same age group: his hair was neatly combed and blond in color while his eyes' irises were emerald greed.

Similar to Dr. Lartes, Kir Osh sported the Alphabet "K" character over the chest area plus a sword sheath.

"Kir Osh used to be a car mechanic but he also made his own research into electronic devices repairs… He knows a lot about circuitry and he helped in the construction of Blood and Sigma."

"Yeah. But when I see a cool car, I can't lay quiet until I've disassembled it and examined each piece of it."

"Hmpf. Fine… Let's go chase those defectives… Rock Man. You drive and I take care of any rubbish on the way." Burai signaled him.

"Eh? Me? A-alright!" Rock Man sounded surprised.

"But don't try to pull a speech on me." He warned.

"O-of course not!" Rock Man gulped.

"Whatever. Move it."

"R-roger!"

"Oi! Subaru! Are ya really gonna let this guy boss ya?" War Rock asked with obvious annoyance.

"I don't have a choice!"

Rock Man jumped into a Jeep's cockpit and turned it on while Burai sat on the passenger seat: he suddenly glared towards Rock Man and lifted an eyebrow formed by a smug smile.

"… You could be interesting later."

"Eh…? E~H?" Rock Man seemed to catch the meaning of it.

"Later."

"Ah… Y-yeah… R-roger…"

"Heh. Your secret weapon was useful, eh?" War Rock teased.

"Be quiet!"

"Actually, that guy hit the mark." Burai let out.

"… I knew something unlucky was gonna happen." Rock Man grimly muttered in a defeatist tone.

"Catastrophe Man knocked at the door, ya see."

Burai made a smug smile again, War Rock chuckled and Rock Man rolled his eyes while Harp Note lifted her eyebrows.

_Subaru – kun will have it hard to get outta this pinch…_


	11. Chapter 10: Ground Zero

**Chapter 10: Ground Zero**

15: 18 PM (Japan Time), Saturday August the 7th…

"… Another 5 minutes until the refinement facility…"

"Good."

"So! What style?"

"Maybe I'll just look on."

"Ah… Let's see if this guy is up to the challenge."

"Yeah. It'll be amusing."

"Crap."

"Heh, heh, heh. Getting nervous, Subari~?"

"Stop with that silly nickname already! Gimme a break!"

Rock Man was complaining aloud while Burai and War Rock seemed to be teasing him in some manner or another.

"Burai… Can't you settle that later?" Dr. Lartes called out.

"Why?" Burai glanced over his right shoulder.

"Stress won't do well for him if he has to battle."

"… Fine. When we get back to Earth, though… I'll call you. You will come and I'll watch. I won't go beyond that phase yet. I don't care if I have to wait another whole year. I've got patience." He shrugged.

"… Maybe I can bear with that…" Rock Man muttered.

"Or do you prefer that Futaba guy?"

"I've got nothing to comment."

"Oho. Claw Man's been teaching ya using his lawyer knowledge?" War Rock asked with obvious amusement.

"Acid ain't Claw Man!" Acid Ace protested.

"Sure, Acid Disaster."

"This guy…!"

"Hmmm… These Jeeps seem to have been property of the JDSF and they've tuned them to use four hover engines instead of a central hover engine…" Kir Osh commented as he looked at some documents.

"Where did you find those?" Dr. Lartes asked.

"The glove compartment…"

"Someone forgot them, then."

"Yeah. "Property of Jeremy. Touch them, you get a jab." … Totally reflects how _cultured_ Maria's grunts were..." Kir Osh ironically told him.

"Obviously… She hired them because they were capable and didn't doubt of using violence: the high salaries she gave them plus the "bonuses" were more than enough to ensure a fanatical devotion."

"Bonuses… What a madwoman." Burai cursed.

"Yeah. Totally. But she ain't getting outta that hole. Ever."

"3 minutes to the facility…" Rock Man reported as he glanced at display's map.

"Pst! Subaru! Ya won't mind me joining the party?" War Rock whispered to him in an amused tone.

"You go tell Ox who's stronger." Rock Man grumbled.

"Hah! Obviously. I'm so gonna blow the guy sky-high!"

"Phew."

"But ya never know… I might sneak into the party…"

"Jeez. Go compete with Sigma – san!"

"Stigma Man?"

"Oi! I heard that!" Sigma protested.

"Mr. Ears showed up?" War Rock laughed.

"What Mr. Ears? Come at full power!"

"Leave at null power!" War Rock taunted.

"This guy…!"

"He's worse than Sir Omega." Blood Shadow drily muttered.

"Yo! Brad Shad! What did Omega do?"

"It ain't your business, War Rock." He grumbled.

"Oh? I guess it was something "H"…" He chuckled.

"I told you: it ain't your business, War Rock!"

"Ya removed the shades and he got captivated by those golden and red eyes of ya?" War Rock teased.

"NO!" Blood Shadow roared.

"Roar Man showed up!"

"Why didn't they call you Troll Rock instead of War Rock?" Blood Shadow countered.

"Oi!"

"Hmpf! Eye for an eye!"

"Wha~t?"

"This is starting to look like a war… How lovely, really…" Rock Man grimly muttered.

"The _Sengoku_?" Burai asked with a grin.

"I preferred you serious and hostile."

"Hmpf. I thought it'd be funnier to test your limits."

"I knew it: Nebula Grey's set a curse on me!"

"The unlucky curse!" War Rock laughed.

"One minute to refinement facility…" Kir Osh reported.

"That reminds me… You were Harp Note, right? Wasn't that Dealer woman after you?" Burai called out.

"… It'd seem she's lost interest." Harp Note drily replied.

"I somehow doubt it." Burai grinned.

"You know something?" Harp Note questioned.

"No."

"Then get outta the way."

"Hmpf. That sounds more serious."

"… This Jeremy guy seems to be from Louisiana… He wrote several annotations inside which seem to be the result of poker games against some of the other guys…" Kir Osh commented.

"Typical…" Dr. Lartes shrugged.

"… Yet he comments someone named Smith left a journal in one of the workstations regarding the excavations' status… We should try to dig it outta the mainframe and read it because it could tell us when Maria started this up and why they left." Kir Osh added.

"Good idea."

"Journal Man shows up from behind with a creepy face~!" Omega suddenly joked.

"Omega? But I thought that Boss had isolated you inside of your capsule until you behaved in a proper manner and stopped trolling around!" Dr. Lartes sounded surprised.

"But I installed a little gadget inside~!"

"Crap. There's no stopping the guy?"

"What did you to Blood, anyway?" Dr. Lartes demanded.

"Check out what kind of guy he was, ya see~!"

"Are you an imbecile or what? Boss told you: Blood doesn't have "specifications" built into his body!"

"Oho. I thought he'd removed the stuff."

"Don't you understand that you don't have "specifications" either because androids don't need them?" Dr. lartes exasperatedly asked.

"I thought he wanted to recreate Bertie's body to the last of details if he wanted to make it convincing, ya see~!"

"Well! That reasoning is silly! There was enough with matching the height and shaping his hair and face to be identical plus voice modulation! Now shut your system down and stop plaguing us!"

"Look! An entrance…!" Harp Note pointed.

Two large lock doors had been slightly opened and the words "REFINEMENT FACILITY SUBLEVEL 0" had been written into them using electric blue paint: a faint glow came out from the inside plus a fog-like effect which gave it a creepy appearance.

"You're not gonna tell me Death Shadow is inside…!" Rock Man grimly muttered.

"Crap. I didn't beat it, then?" Burai cursed.

"You sure gave the guy a kickass, but he seems to have fled and come down here." Acid Ace deduced.

"Bothersome jerk."

"Let's reduce speed and get ready to face whatever is waiting for us inside of that." Dr. Lartes rallied.

"Looks like the gates of Hell have opened…" Kir Osh muttered.

"Well… It seems pretty cold to be Hell in my opinion." Harp Note told them with a hint of sarcasm.

"Let's go!" Burai grinned.

"_Hai_~…" Rock Man muttered in a resigned tone.

The cars entered through the doorway and reached a vast round room where some cargo trucks were parked at plus another three entrances which were unlocked: the central part had a round cargo elevator built into it which had descended down a shaft cut into live rock: this rock glowed with the bluish halo they'd seen earlier and the fog seemed to originate from the shaft: sounds of gunfire rang out from deep inside of the shaft, too.

"… There's no hitting this jerk or what?" Kurayami cursed.

"Che! I thought that the "R" Wizards were though, but… This guy is V3 by now and very fast!" Kanaya cursed as well.

"Hah, hah, hah, hah…" Death Shadow's laughter rang out.

"Can't this guy do anything else apart from laughing?"

"Dunno!"

"Our suspicions were true: Death Shadow is down there and giving those two trouble." Dr. Lartes commented.

"This must kilometers deep… There's no safe way to go down safe for the elevator…" Acid Ace muttered as he looked down into it.

"Wait! I found something. Ta – dan!"

Kir Osh had been inspecting inside of a cargo truck's compartment where he found a metallic spheroid with six arms: two of them held circular saws on them, the other two had pneumatic hammers and the last pair had hands which gripped a container capable of being sealed: the whole set wasn't taller than a meter.

"An excavation droid… So this is how they mined." Rock Man lifted his eyebrows in surprise.

"We should've guessed it… This stuff is too dangerous to be handled without protection like when using uranium…" Dr. Lartes shrugged.

"Maybe I turn it on we can use its visuals input to see what's going on down there sans the need to come down!"

"Good thinking. Let's use proxy to fight proxy." Burai grinned.

Kir Osh examined the droid and blew some dust off it to reveal three "eyes" which were mere red-colored LEDs and a camera built atop it: two engine-like devices were attached to its back.

"This thing's battery is at 20%, though… It should last 15 minutes at the utmost… We'll just have a sneak peek and then recharge it using the devices over there…" Kir Osh told them.

"Fine. Let's send our Spy – kun down there." Harp Note grinned.

"Not bad." Acid Ace smiled.

Kir Osh pressed a switch and the droid activated: the two engines began to hum and made it hover above the ground while Kir Osh opened a port and connected his Hunter – VG to it using a wire: he inputted some commands before unplugging it and the droid gently began to descend down the shaft: Kir Osh brought up a Real Wave screen.

"… Descent ratio: 30 meters per second… Not bad. It can cover almost 2 kilometers in one minute…" Kir Osh reported.

"Does it have audio input?" Dr. Lartes asked.

"Yeah. I'm connecting it."

"… Grah! I'm getting fed up! Step away from that hole in the wall, you jerk! We don't have time to fool around! Get it? Or are you deaf to begin with?" Kurayami cursed.

"Yeah! Take this! Wood Slash!"

"Hah, hah, hah, hah, hah…"

"Grah! He countered with the Fire Slash!"

"Elemental attacks are in vain: he can counter with the opposing element when we hit the guy!"

"No more Mr. Nice! Grave Joker Galaxy Advance!"

"How's this one like!"

The droid's camera suddenly ended up in a wide and deep cavern: the shaft now consisted of four metallic beams and encircling segments of steel which allowed for the elevator to keep on descending: Kurayami and Kanaya could be seen quarreling with Death Shadow in front of a large hole which had the shape of the exoskeleton as if pointing out that he'd broken out through there.

"Hmmm… This cavern seems to have been created by the meteor's touchdown because there was an already existing pit opened by seawater filtration and earthquakes… The meteor fell down it while bouncing off the walls until it hit the bottom at some speed and the explosion provoked this cave-in… Or so Smith records in the journal…" Vadous suddenly told them over the radio.

"Is there a date on the journal?"

"Yeah. October, 2201. There's no specific day but he hints at being close to the end of the month." Vadous replied.

"2201? Dad had already been declared MIA by then…" Rock Man recalled with a sigh.

"Yeah… I remember it was around that time, too, when we boarded the "Bonds" space station…" War Rock admitted.

"But it'd seem they first landed here on January… They immediately realized the potential of the stuff and decided to exploit on industrial scale to then sell it to rogue nations as a new nuclear weapon. They set the machines up and used auto-programs to let them run while they departed and didn't come back until July to check: all main tunneling was done by then and construction was 80% complete. Satisfied, they left again and came back on early October. That's when Smith made this entry."

"So? What happened next?" Burai sounded interested.

"Mining proceeded naturally and they'd processed huge volumes of the stuff until, in late December, they met "THAT FREAKING SCARY MONSTER" to quote how Smith named it."

"Typical Western grunt…" Acid Ace chuckled.

"It'd seem the thing had been sleeping deep beneath the main cavern but they accidentally woke it up. And that was, in Smith's words, "the start of a hellish winter"…"

"Hellish winter, eh?" Burai kept on looking amused.

"They fought it with all possible weaponry until February when they decided to give up and come back later with better weapons. They did find out how to mass-process it and so they ended up selling some of it to those nations, yet, for some intriguing reason, it ended up decaying and becoming useless in less than a week's time. Further research surprised them because some microscopic cell-like organisms seemed to exist inside of this stuff and, when exposed to an atmosphere with little to none gaseous state substance on it, they initiated apoptosis… So they had to scram before the rogue nations could try to get to their necks. In the end, the whole project was abandoned because it was impossible to properly exploit… He overheard Izono Marco, Maria's PR man, talking to another man about the possibility that, if they improved the cells' DNA string, it could prevent the apoptosis and give them adaptation capability to other environments…" Vadous read.

"I see… And they surely were trying to come up with something which could be used to kill the monster." Acid Ace muttered.

"Yet, it'd seem that, over time, they forgot about it and didn't recall the whole affair given how they started to consolidate their power and Maria began to believe she was invincible and all that tyrant stuff."

"Did they lock down the whole area to seal up the monster and hope it'd die from hunger or something like that?" Harp Note guessed.

"Yeah. But, from what the scanners show me, the monster has managed to excavate an escape route using a drilling shaft left behind from the drilling machine testing: it leads directly to the surface and I'm sure its legs helped it climb up."

"Heh! So their own seal backfired on them." Burai grinned.

"Sure thing… Look: this is getting intense again!"

In effect: Death Shadow had morphed into his spheroid form and was moving around at a maddening speed to the shock of Kurayami and Kanaya who were unable to hit him.

"… Hah, hah, hah, hah!"

Death Shadow deposited a bomb which detonated and blinded the screen before it faded: he'd vanished from sight and the two enemies were growling and hissing as they somehow jumped back to their feet.

"Ran away… The jerk! Not gonna let him run!"

"Yeah… Me neither!"

They ran towards the opening on the wall while Kir Osh made the droid look downwards and spot the elevator some hundreds of meters further down.

"Hmmm… There's a jump of 900 meters until the elevator. I guess we're better off calling it up, going down and climbing the shaft. It'd be dangerous for us, but you guys, using the Denpa – Henkan forms, can use Barrier-type Battle Cards to repel the radiation. We'll climb up using one of the emergency shafts and we meet on the surface." Dr. Lartes suggested a course of action.

"Fine." Burai shrugged.

"Time for a thrill!" Acid Ace grinned.

"Thrill leads to disaster, Shidou, like the "Sweet Candy" you always eat whenever you have a chance to." Acid intoned.

"Jeez! Always stealing the glory outta me…" Acid Ace grumbled.

"Hmpf. Get ready, Rock Man…" Burai warned.

"Crap." Rock Man rolled his eyes.

"Jeez." Harp Note protested.

Burai grinned and jumped down ahead of the others while Rock Man slapped his face in defeat…


	12. Chapter 11: Plans

**Chapter 11: Plans**

15:49 PM (Japan Time), Saturday August the 7th…

"… Huff… Huff… What the heck is this place?"

"Dunno… Looks like a local village's ruins…"

"So! There _were_ intelligent guys in here…"

"But it looks empty…"

Kurayami and Kanaya came out of a cylindrical shaft which had signs of having been expanded by the monster and having rung ladders built into it to discover a small cluster of about thirty buildings built around a central building which looked important: all constructions were made of stone and mud expect for the central building, which seemed to have been made entirely of stone.

"Urban warfare? Is that that jerks' goal?" Kurayami wondered.

"I doubt knowing what it means to begin with." Kanaya muttered.

"Let's check this place out: I'm sure it can provide a thousand hiding spots for that jerk." Kurayami rallied.

"Yeah… Let's draw that jerk out!" Kanaya made a grimace.

They sneaked around the village and checked the houses: they all had rotten remains of wooden doors and shutters and followed the same model: a ground floor and stairs climbing up to the first floor: the doors and shutters had hinges and screws to support them.

"Human constructions? But I doubt the guys who tried to mine this place bothered to build this…" Kurayami muttered.

"And why would they make them so primitive?"

"… Maybe I will clarify."

"Huh? Who goes there?"

"Show yourself!"

Death Shadow landed in front of them from the top of another house and was waving a white plastic piece.

"White flag. Parliament." He announced.

"Parliament…? Fine. So?" Kurayami questioned.

"As you two said… Humans lived there. There are a spaceship's remains several kilometers towards the NNE… They are hidden under vegetation yet they seem unable to work… But from what I remember as my other form… I remember their talk… I think it was this same idiom we are speaking right now…" He exposed.

"Japanese?"

"Correct. They used to gather in that building and a human which looked like the oldest of them would speak to them… They said words like "corruption", "vulnerable", "nature", "freedom", "community" and others: the eldest human seemed to exert command over the others. I did not see any advanced technology except for the spaceship. And if I go by your "calendar"… They were here in the year 2195."

"10 years ago… Hmmm… Maybe it's another of those humans who claim our current technological society is too vulnerable and that we are laying waste to the planet… They must have desired to break free from the links with Earth and come live here… Can you calculate when did you make landfall here?" Kurayami deduced.

"2195, too."

"I guess your own radiation killed them?"

"I believe so. A while later."

"They seem to have had a believer-like structure with the elder being the shepherd and them the cattle… They threw away all technology and wanted to recreate the ancient eras… Were there other life-forms apart from them?"

"There were. They would sometimes slaughter them to then use their meat as food."

"No doubt anymore, then… They wanted to live here. Could you tell them apart?"

"Hmmm… I believe there were about 60 of them. They all looked close in age to the elder, though…"

"Let's put the elder on his 60s or 70s and they'd be around their 50s, then… Maybe they were around that age in purpose because then they'd have no other interests…" Kurayami muttered.

"I have tested you. You are not weak, yet you lack technique. The same could apply to me. I use my abilities in an instinctive manner without coordinating them or using strategies… Maybe we could try to form a pact?" Death Shadow suggested.

"A pact…?" Kanaya asked.

"Tell me… What did those humans with advanced technology intend to do with my… let us say… substance?"

"Well… From what we found out in the computers, they intended to make a bio-weapon outta it… But the thing failed." Kurayami shrugged.

"Why?"

"Atmosphere. Earth's atmosphere was incompatible with the cells and they initiated "apoptosis" or cell self-destruct thus leaving the substance unable to be used in any manner. There were suggestions of changing the DNA of the cells by merging it with other Earth-original cells and develop a hybrid." Kanaya explained to him.

"I see… I had not thought of it. Of course… My own landfall stained the air and made it compatible with my substance while it killed the humans given how their DNA was unable to merge with my substance…"

"To begin with: _where_ do you come from?"

"From the source of this… Hmmm… Let us name it "Omicron Factor" for the time being… A faraway planet which was filled with life… But the weak atmosphere and exposition to gamma rays made it undergo a mutation in which new cells were formed and generate Omicron Factor…"

"A planet which self-generates Omicron Factor and creates life-forms filled with it…!" Kanaya gasped.

"Correct. Let us name it Zero Point. Zero Point generated organisms which lodged inside of gigantic shells and slowly climbed towards the surface before being "ejected" into outer space… We carry the ability to generate worm-holes and skip large distances over space… I ended up finding this planet and made landfall into that pit: the shell fell vertically down it until it hit the bottom and shattered… I was but the core of it at that moment and I began to generate Omicron Factor while I searched for the strongest predator in the natural biosphere… But I found none. Thus I began to change my own form through trial and error and using remains from the larger shell I built my exoskeleton… I then began to wander the planet's underground…" Death Shadow exposed.

"Cool… Yet… How could you monitor them if you were stuck down there, in the cavern? The shaft we've used to climb didn't exist yet. And not even you could climb up that wider shaft."

"Correct. But I used the cells of Omicron Factor for that when they came into contact with some of the humans' animals."

"I see."

"I have told what I have to tell. Tell me your names."

"Kurayami."

"Kanaya."

"You two are programs… Named "Denpa Bodies"… While I am defined as a "cyborg" given my mix of organic and cybernetic components… Hum. I see…"

"Yeah. And our forms aren't coincidence. We were formless programs who copied the forms of two humans."

"Rock Man is one of them… And the other must be the female known as Harp Note…"

"Huh? You've met them?" Kanaya asked.

"I did. I infiltrated the "HQ" to regain some Omicron Factor and battled him… I did stir up fear on his existence, though. I then returned to the planet and found Burai."

"Burai! That bothersome guy…! We somehow managed to shake him off when he was chasing us down the tunnels!" Kurayami cursed.

"However… This planet is wide. There are unexplored regions. Maybe we could find something useful." Death Shadow suggested.

"Good idea… Huh? I hear something!"

"Let us hide in the main building."

The three of them ran (although Death Shadow actually hovered some centimeters over the ground) towards the main building and stepped inside of a dusty chamber with unlit candles set on the wall and a small altar having a hastily-drawn painting on its far wall: it illustrated something hitting the surface, blue-colored flames, a _shinigami_ and the words "all is lost" written in _katakana_.

"I see. They imagined a _shinigami_ being the culprit for their increasing deaths and disgraces… And I'd guess whoever left this message was about to die, too." Kurayami guessed.

"What does that message say?" Death Shadow asked.

"I guess you haven't gotten used to the Japanese writing systems yet, so I'll tell you… It reads "all is lost"."

"All is lost?"

"The whole faith, colony, haven, project, ideal… Whatever they named it was doomed and was going to be destroyed. Nothing would be left behind: it indicates a human emotion labeled "despair" which is when one finds himself in a spot where he thinks there's nothing which can save them from that tight spot." Kurayami explained.

"I see. Yet… The traits look eye-catching."

"_Katakana is_ supposed to be more eye-catching than _hiragana_."

"Hum. I should look up my files… I understand you because I go by meanings and do not see the way you portray this."

"I guess Blood Shadow's mindset included a small visual dictionary which you use as reference. Images."

"Correct. Images. I use those."

"… Whoa! What's this village? Natives?" Acid Ace's voice could be heard asking close by.

"No, no… Look at the doors and shutters…" Kir Osh told him.

"What the… Hinges and screws? Humans lived here? But… How? I mean, WAXA would have a record of that if there'd been an attempt to settle in another planet." Acid Ace argued.

"Maybe it was a private venture?" Rock Man suggested.

"Private venture! That'd be a first." Acid Ace sounded surprised.

"And they obviously died of radiation. I dunno when it happened, though, and if Maria's crew found the rests or there was nothing left behind. I don't see a piece of technology. Maybe they wanted to be naturalists and be in contact with nature…" Dr. Lartes muttered.

"Hmmm… Laplace. Any trails?" Burai asked.

"Wha! What's Burai doing with those guys? I thought he always went off on his own!" Kurayami cursed.

"Maybe he wants to tag because they're "useful"…"

"Could be."

"Is that Burai supposed to be a…"solitary wolf"…?" Death Shadow asked in a hushed tone of voice.

"Yeah. That defines the guy: goes on his own, despises bonds and nothing impresses him. The only thing which can get his interest is a good battle which drives him into tight spots." Kanaya shrugged.

"Ga… Yu…"

"No. No games anymore. Smell." Burai commanded.

"Smelling smelly of smells!" Omega joked over the radio.

"Omega! Stop fooling around!" Dr. Lartes growled.

"The bad guys are obviously hiding on the Mayor's office."

"The Mayor's office? There's no such thing here!" Kir Osh cursed.

"Well then… At the Dark Temple under Kakariko Village's graveyard where Hyrlue's blood-stained history was written…"

"I dunno where you picked that from."

"Temple? Hey! That building looks like a temple!" Harp Note suddenly exclaimed.

"Crap!" Kurayami and Kanaya muttered.

"… They outnumber us." Death Shadow guessed.

"Yeah! We need a way to flee."

"The rooftops!" Kanaya suggested.

"Good! Let's go! Impact Cannon!"

"Mad Vulcan X!"

Kurayami shot the Impact Cannon at the entrance thus collapsing it while Kayana blew a hole open in the ceiling: they quickly jumped into the rooftop and jumped to another house's one and so on as the expeditionary group was trying to make their way inside.

"They barricaded inside!" Rock Man cursed.

"Hah! No barricade can withstand War Rock – sama! I'll tear it down yet: just you watch! Grawl! War Rock Sama Barricade Destroy Mode!"

"Yessir!" Omega laughed.

"Shaddup." Dr. Lartes snapped.

"Hmpf. Rubbish." Burai scoffed.

15:58 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Huff, huff… I guess… we're far enough…"

"Where's this…?"

"The esplanade with the spaceship's remains…"

"Whoa!"

Kurayami and Kanaya had stopped to catch his breath while Death Shadow signaled a spaceship parked there which had obvious signs of decay given the algae and fungus forming around its metallic structure: it was shaped like a circle and had four support legs plus an access ramp and a dome sprouting out of the middle which had the looks of having been the command bridge: it didn't look wider than 30 meters or taller than 6 meters.

"Cool. Let's check it out: we might find something which we may be able to recycle." Kurayami grinned.

"Yeah. If there's anything apart from the "ghost in the machine" who roams there…" Kanaya sarcastically added.

"Hah, hah. Very funny." Kurayami drily told her.

"Come in." Death Shadow told them.

They stepped into the spaceship: it had several rooms containing hammocks the mattresses of which were largely decomposed: four per room.

"With these ratios, they used about 15 rooms… And there had to be some reserved for personal hygiene and food storage as well as spare parts in the event of an emergency… And there _had_ to be a compartment for the animals, too. This had to take a lot of time to organize and even more if they wanted the whole thing to be secret in case NAXA tried to stop them by claiming it was too dangerous…" Kurayami deduced from the rooms' inspections.

"I found the command bridge!"

"Good! Let's check it out!"

They rushed into the command bridge and found the rusted and decayed remains of a humanoid robot crew of 4: the controls and screens were dead and totally decayed.

"Maybe the HDDs have something inside: they're designed to be totally sealed from any particle… Even if the system is down, we should be able to transfer the data to our bodies and access it. We can discard trying to fly this thing: it'll never fly again." Kurayami told them.

"How did you get here, though?" Death Shadow asked.

"A spacecraft, too. But we lost control of it because lighting hit the engines and had to jump off as it crashed into the mountains not too far from where we lived…" Kanaya told them.

"And we can discard trying to intrude the "HQ"… Their security must have increased ever since my intrusion some hours ago…"

"The problem is getting outta this rock, you mean. There has to be a way: I'm sure of it. We'd thought of recycling the Jeeps and trucks to form a crude hover-engine spacecraft but we're not sure it'd survive the exposition to gamma rays and such which could also affect our bodies, too…" Kurayami sighed.

"Let's have a look at the HDDs and then we'll continue exploring to see if we can find something."

"Speaking of which… I remembered something… An armored chamber excavated into the mountain by the second expedition… They set something inside but the door was too thick and powerful for me to force open…" Death Shadow recalled.

"Intriguing. That should be our next stop."

"Bus stop?" Kanaya joked.

"Very original."

"Hey. Just trying to lower the tension…"

"Fine. Let's hurry to that armored chamber."

"Roger."

Kurayami removed some HDDs which he placed inside of a metallic container and they rushed outside of the decayed spaceship and headed into a forest meadow filled with leafless trees and fungus: they ran past it and stopped in a clearing some meters away.

"Towards there." Death Shadow indicated.

"Roger."

They ran down a path and climbed over a hill to then pick a path spiraling down towards ground level and which ended up in a small concrete-wall-enclosed-valley right in front of a hill and a lone mountain peak which was made of concrete: the remains of machinegun turrets could be seen set over the walls.

"I destroyed them by bouncing off their rounds."

"Good move."

"Let's hurry!"

They ran up the hill and stopped in front of an armored door two meters tall: two control panels were set on each side of it and had the usual numerical keypad plus LCD display.

"What! Nine digit password…!" Kurayami cursed.

"…916215514…" Kanaya told him.

Kurayami looked surprised but they synchronized to input the password nevertheless: a beep rang out and two green LEDs turned on as the door opened: they rushed inwards and waited for it to close: the room was totally unlit.

"How did you…?" Kurayami asked.

"Tee, heh, heh, heh, heh… Later."

Kurayami looked surprised, Death Shadow was mute and she giggled…


	13. Chapter 12: Ship log

**Chapter 12: Ship log**

16:08 PM (Japan Time), Saturday August the 7th…

"… So? How did you figure it out?"

"I-QUEEN…"

"I-QUEEN?"

"… "I" stands for "Ice"… If you pick the position in the Alphabet of each letter, you get 916215514…"

"Hah! As expect of a megalomaniac woman… She came up with the password using her own title!"

"Yeah. But don't label me of megalomaniac, either."

"Eh… Of course not."

"Have a look."

"What the heck is that?"

"Dunno."

Kanaya had told Kurayami how she deduced the password and he laughed while Kanaya looked unimpressed: Death Shadow called for their attention and they gasped upon spotting something.

"That machine…!" Kurayami gasped.

The machine was, basically, a pyramidal platform with a two-meter-tall-ring structure set atop it and rows of monitors and other devices attached to the sides of it.

"I remember this thing! It allows for Time-Space trips by going over light-speed!" Kanaya exclaimed.

"Perfect. This is our escape route, then."

"Let's try starting it up: looks clean and intact enough."

"Go ahead."

Kurayami interacted with a touch-sensible monitor and began to look at some options.

"Hmmm… We need coordinates."

"We could use Kodama Town's ones…"

"Wait. It also asks of us to specify _date and time_? And it ain't system clock, either!" Kurayami gasped.

"Then… This thing allows us to time-travel as well?"

"Time-travel… I saw on Blood Shadow's memory files several persons which seem to belong to another age… Why not? Let us try it! We will surprise them. Even if they find the machine, they will most likely assume we have gone back straight to Earth!" Death Shadow sounded curious and amused at the same time.

"Why not… The large amount of electronic devices could help us hide easily… We can go to Kodama Town's coordinates but at some time in the past!" Kurayami grinned.

"Got any dates on mind?"

"Hmmm… Blood Shadow's logs suggest nothing spectacular has happened on that era for about half a year now… Then let us go to the last log date of Blood Shadow…" Death Shadow suggested.

Kurayami slowly inputted the data and waited for the machine to process it before it began to hum.

"1 hour of loading time is needed… What can we do in the meanwhile to kill the wait time?"

"Check the ship logs." Kanaya suggested.

"True. I'd forgotten we'd brought them along."

"We must see if the data is still readable."

"I can use the backup computer of this machine to check it out: the high processing power should benefit us."

"Roger."

Kurayami connected one of the HDDs using a wire to one of the monitors and the HDD began to hum: data was quickly displayed over the screen and Kurayami checked it out.

"Lucky~! I found the very first log. January, 2195."

"Play it!"

"… Log 001 of _SS Freedom…_ January, 2195. Yamamura Munou, 65 years old, resident of Kyoto, speaking… Our mission can finally begin after more than 5 years of secret maneuvers and tension. We will cut off from this planet trekking the road to self-destruction and go live with nature in another planet we have detected after looking up old military registers from the past half a century. Unidentified Planet G86, which we will rename Haven, is our target. We will take two months of travel to reach it and install there. We carry simple building materials, animals, vegetables and faith with us. No government will detect our lift-off or travel: all members of our crew are lone people who have never married and have little to no living family. But they have faith. We will spend most of the time in cold sleep status thanks to a recently discovered drug… And once we land on the planet, we will leave this ship behind to be claimed by nature thus severing our last link to Earth. We are not afraid. We have faith. We can live like our antecessors did. We are 59. But we have faith on our mission… I will leave these logs behind in case someone was to find us and we were no longer alive. End of log 001…"

"… I see. Like I thought… They were moved by faith and wanted to recreate the ancient cultures which lived in harmony with nature here, cut out from Earth forever…" Kurayami muttered.

"And if they took two months, then they've must gotten here around March of that same year. And Death here made landfall some months later but I doubt he recorded that."

"Let's not draw conclusions so fast." Kurayami told her.

"Play the next."

"… Log 002 of _SS Freedom_… February, 2195. We did it. We have left Earth behind a month ago and exited the Solar System through a risky passage across the Kuiper Belt. We are half-way through our journey. I'm the only passenger awake. All the others are drugged, including the animals. Four robots take care of the ship. They will be disconnected and allowed to join with nature with time, too, once the ship lands. I have faith in our mission and I will not falter when we are so close to our goal! We know that we all are past the age of having children, so we will eventually die out and we have no – one into which to pass the baton. But we will be an example to follow, the first ones! Others will follow! Someone will find these records one day! Listen, people of Earth! Earth is walking the road to self-destruct ever since the 19th century! The industrial revolution began it all: the greenhouse effect, sea-level rise, melting of the ice masses, islands of junk in the oceans, the ozone layer hole! All those commodities at the cost of others… Human society nowadays is vile and corrupt! Listen to our call: break free! Start a colony outside of that dying world! If we don't spread our race across the stars, we are all doomed to die along with our home planet! Don't die as fool: merge with nature and live in peace and free of mortal sins! Faith! This is what this world is lacking. Faith! No! Not faith aimed at self-destruction and power… Faith in nature! Nature was the one who created us and, in exchange, what are we doing? Destroying it! Killing it! Murdering it! People of Earth! Listen to my call! Look up and contemplate the infinite Universe…! End of Log 0002…!"

"The old man was starting to turn into one of those shepherds who claimed all trouble would end if they joined their faith… There have been plenty of those in the 20th and 21st centuries." Kurayami commented after listening to it.

"What is wrong with those?" Death Shadow asked.

"It's a bit hard to explain, but… They get obsessed with one fixed idea: and they all then commit mass suicide because "God" commanded them to: they had to "free themselves from sin", and thus…" Kanaya replied.

"It seems a foolish thing to die for."

"It is! And this is just the tip of the iceberg."

"Log 003 of _SS Freedom_… March, 2195. We did it! We have reached Haven and made landfall a few minutes ago! The drug should be about to fade but it will take at least a full 24 hours before all crew members are able to properly move… The seedlings we sent ahead of us have had their effect and the oxygen content in the atmosphere has risen from 13% to 20% thus making it more Earth-like… Carbon dioxide is at about 75% but that's not harmful. The skies are virgin and blue! The earth is green and nature is everywhere! The oceans are pristine! This is not a mere Haven anymore: it is Eden! Eden! This is Eden! There's no Eden on Earth: the only Eden is this one! People of Earth! Listen! It's foolish to think of "salvation"… There's no such thing! One dies. And that's all. There's no afterlife or Afterworld like people keep on claiming. But this is… Eden. The only Eden! And I will guide the cattle into it. I am the shepherd! I will guide them. They have unbreakable faith on me. We will build our own community and every day offer our praying to nature! May it bless us! Bless Nature! Nature has punished humanity for the harm to them: tornadoes, typhoons, earthquakes, tremors, volcanoes, tsunamis, floods, forest fires, deforestation, acid rain, desertification, blizzards, sandstorms, snowstorms…! They are all the vengeance of Nature! But this planet is unpolluted and it will remain unpolluted! People of Earth! If you want to escape destruction, then… Leave Earth! Cast technology aside and live in harmony with nature! Remember: Earth is walking towards its self-destruction! People of Earth! Break free! Faith! Bless Nature! Escape, flee or run away! Faith! Bless nature! End of Log 003…!"

"Okay. He now claims this planet was Eden. But I guess he was using a too broad concept of "Eden"… Eden was a garden. But this planet was no garden." Kanaya shrugged.

"Garden…?" Death Shadow asked.

"A patch of nature which is kept to make decoration… A space filled with flowers, grass, trees, rivers, lakes, mountains… A natural perimeter: but you can't claim a whole planet is a garden. You can say a patch of terrain is a garden. But not the whole territory." Kurayami defined.

"Hum. I see."

"Let's see… 35 minutes until loading's complete… Let's listen to the next one: this one should belong to April." Kanaya muttered.

"… Log 004 of _SS Freedom_. April, 2195. I snuck out of the community at night. We have built several houses, more than we needed, really, but just in case someone joined us. We have a temple in which we offer our praying to Nature. All has proceeded naturally and everyone is rejoiced: they don't regret abandoning the ship, the last object linking us to Earth. The robots have been shut down already, too. Nature will make them and the ship join it one day. There's a huge pit not too far from here which looks like it was excavated by natural forces. Surprising! We have cordoned it off by building a perimeter around it just in case. The animals interact well with the environment given the large amount of grass and vegetation. By unanimous decision, we've renamed this planet into "Eden"… We are content with how we can live here. Faith! Faith unites us. We live free of sin and temptation. No Demons can plague us there. No snake will tempt us. No God will expel us. There are no Gods and Demons here: they are but mere words! Only nature exists here. And nature is generous with us given how our harvests have been plentiful until now… People of Earth! Listen to my words which will be left behind when we are no-more and the mission is gone… Break free from the shackles! Stop this suffering of nature! Rejoice! If you abandon Earth and go unite with nature somewhere else, then you will be free of sin! You will die. But you will be satisfied that you tried to amend to Nature for the damage done to her. People of Earth! I feel no connection to that remote planet anymore by now… Follow my words! Tell them to those in whom you trust! In those in whom you believe! They will realize it! And if you can find the inheritance I left behind on my house… You will be able to understand how we managed to get this far without anyone noticing… End of Log 004… Bless Nature!"

"So… They'd installed and built the whole village by then. And he's leaving his words before for others to imitate him. Not unheard of…" Kurayami shrugged.

"I am intrigued to hear how they describe my landfall and posterior demise…" Death Shadow chuckled.

"Well. Let's hear to the gramps. May…"

"Log 005 of _SS Freedom… _May, 2195. The community is advancing and we are content! Faith guides our path. Nature is generous with us. Nature is answering to our prayers. This is Eden. There's no other place on the Universe like this one… Eden! Our Haven. Our refuge! People of Earth! Pay attention: I'm not sure which logs will survive and which not over the years, decades or centuries before someone hears to them but… Remember something! By the time you come here, you will surely have been forced to expedite out of Earth because the resources are being exhausted and nature is striking back at you! Humanity! You have long harmed nature. Flee Earth! Leave her alone! Scatter throughout the stars and cast technology again! Give birth to children who will get used to the environment of that planet… And they will not miss Earth because they haven't known any other life except for their own life in their particular Eden! They will be taught to have faith in nature and offer prayers to her…! Nature! Thou are who guides us! Humanity shall regress at the start… And given enough millennia, some of Earth's troubles may vanish and nature will cleanse everything… Earth could be rescued. But that's a far-fetched thing. We may be dooming it forever at this rate. Humans are the cruelest creatures ever: destroying Nature for their selfish needs and not thanking it for the harvests and food produced every year like the people of old did! People of Earth! There are no sins, ambition, laziness or gloat in Eden. Break free from the Earthly sins! Purge yourself! Bathe yourself in Eden's waters… And your sins shall be cleansed. You shall be born anew. If you have faith, then… Stay! Cast aside Earth! Bring what might be needed… But be ready to cast everything! You must be brave and decided: if you don't, then go back from where you came from! Do not stain Eden with your blood-stained hands! Flee! Leave! Go back! Stay away from MY Eden…! End of Log 005…!"

"… "MY Eden"…? This guy's getting arrogant." Kurayami muttered.

"Like all others before him!" Kanaya shrugged.

"June…" Death Shadow muttered.

"Play it, Death."

"… Log 006 of _SS Freedom_… June, 2195. Surprisingly, one of the members of the mission has passed away. It'd seem he had a genetic disease on his heart which he'd been keeping under control using a medicine, but he'd discarded it when he began living here. He didn't suffer: he chose to let Nature decide if he'd lived long enough and nature emitted the verdict: a wise man. We decided to incinerate him next to the pit given how the terrain is more rock-like there and there was no danger of setting fire to anything else. We will leave a record in one wall which we have written using a stone's edge. The wall directly south of the pit… We are now 58 but there is no sorrow. Everyone reacted accordingly. Nobody cried and nobody lamented his end. Become one with Nature, Brother… He was the first even though I'm the oldest in age. But Nature is the one who decides the order. If I were to pass away, the second oldest man or woman shall succeed me. And so. People of Earth… That man did a wise thing: remember him, remember Kentou Josua, 55, from Hokkaido… He let Nature decide. He had no regrets. He didn't want to fool Nature and escape his fate anymore. He redeemed himself at the very last moment in a heroic manner… End of Log 006…"

"… The first death… A man who chose to end his life. But I guess he didn't want to be dependant of that medicine and he'd seen enough of life, anyway." Kanaya muttered.

"This one was a bit shorter… 20 minutes until loading… Log 007 should be July. Let's check."

"… Log 007 of _SS Freedom_… July, 2195. Nature! Why! Why have you turned so cruel with us? Or is the Cosmos who decided it? No… It has to be the cruel Cosmos who gambles with life and death! Only such a vile existence could do this to us! People of Earth: this is terrible… Three weeks ago… An object suddenly fell down from the skies and into the pit… The explosion was terrible the ongoing earthquake also was…! But then a bluish gas bringing slow and agonizing death in less than 5 days…! Two of us have died and 5 more are agonizing… We tried to erect a crude seal by covering the whole of it with the bricks, but the damage is already done and the very air now breathes of death! What will happen…? Cosmos! You lowlife! You are the root of all this…! End of Log 007!"

"Three weeks ago… Each one is recorded on the last day of each month, so… It hit them shortly after starting July. And I guess there are only going to be a few logs after this one…" Kurayami calmly muttered.

"The "Factor Omicron" began to root itself into the planet to turn it into a replica of the Zero Point…" Death Shadow muttered.

"… Log 008 of _SS Freedom_… August, 2195. How terrible! Eden is… Eden is dying! The blue gas has disappeared by now, but… The oceans are turning murkier, dead or horribly mutated fish are bathed on the shores, the animals are dying or suffering aberrations, trees lose leaves, grass dies and we die along them! One month since my last log and… Of the initial 59 members, only 28, I included, are left! Cosmos has staked for death and a _shinigami_ has landed on this world! But we will not flee! We will not be cowards! We will die here and join the remains of Nature! I don't know if I will live long enough to make another log, so if this one is the last one, then… Listen, people of Earth! Eden has been stained. We are doomed. All hope is lost and the only thing for us to taste is the bitter desperation, waiting for when we die amongst agony…! But existing outside of Earth without any technology is possible! Cosmos has been our undoing! Hadn't it been for Cosmos, then…! We could've lived here for decades! But our mission is dead by now… This world is dying. It's transforming into a desolate world where only death will be breathed…! But our imprint shall be left behind! These houses and the temple will be proof of it! People of Earth! A community lead by faith is possible…! Faith! Let faith guide your path! Faith! Guidance! Nature! End of log 008…!"

"There's one last log." Kanaya spotted.

"The will…" Kurayami muttered.

"Will?"

"It's a document where you state what will happen to your body and your belongings once you die: who will inherit it or where they will be destined to… It's always existed and sometimes battles are fought over them under suspicion of forgery for one party to benefit…" Kanaya explained.

"Let's listen to it."

"Last log of _SS Freedom_… September, 2195… I am dying. I am ill. Only 6 left… Something…! That shell brought something along…! I hear its cries from the depths of the sealed pit…! Its movements! It breaks down rock with ease! I can feel it…! Everywhere…! Its voice…! On my dreams! Evolution… Death… There are only two paths…! We evolve… or we die as aberrations… Only 10% of the animals and crops are left… Once they run out, then… It'll be the end… We'll gather in the temple… Offer our last prayers to Nature… And part this world… Eden… Eden has become desolate…! No! Don't draw me! Stay away! Shut up! Stop haunting my dreams! I have to finish my will! My testament to Earth! Whoever finds this, understand! We did what was correct! But Cosmos foiled us! It's laughing at us through its servant…! To the wife and children I left behind, tell them I always loved them, but my mission had to be above any sin and temptation! And so it has been! All which I had… is for you to inherit! Anna, my wife…! Miko, my son…! Satou, my daughter…! Your father has been a brave man who has set the foundations for the future! A future of salvation, of redemption…! To anyone who listens to this…! Please hand this material to them…! And only then they will understand why their father disappeared from their lives so suddenly…! I need to return and gather the survivors… At this rate… We won't survive another week, and the autumn will claim us…! Farewell! Earth!"

The log ended and a silence hung around the room while the machine hummed: some sounds began to ring out on the outside, too.

"… They found us." Kanaya calmly guessed.

"The machine still needs 10 minutes." Kurayami muttered.

"Cannot we cover our trails somehow?"

"It can self-destruct. But I will leave these HDDs behind. They will know what to do." Kanaya replied.

"I second that."

"Fine. Do as you like. I am going to face them…"

Death Shadow chuckled while the other two remained silent…


	14. Chapter 13: Final assault

**Chapter 13: Final assault**

16:58 PM (Japan Time), Saturday August the 7th…

"… Crap. This door is too thick. It won't give out."

"We should try to think what the password could be."

"You-know-what! Mwah, hah, hah, hah, ha~h!"

"That wasn't half-funny, even."

"Rock!"

"… Hmpf. So that's how it is."

"Any luck, Kir Osh?"

"I tried Anaya's birthday but no: I fall one digit short."

"Bad choice. Maria never recognized her birthday. No – one save for Marco knew it."

"Then, what? Her bank account?"

"She had hundreds!"

"Then try it yourself, Dr. House!"

Acid Ace had been trying to hit the armored door without success: Harp Note made a suggestion, War Rock made a joke which Harp Note shot back with total dryness, Rock Man scolded him, Burai formed a smug smile, Kir Osh was trying passwords and Dr. Lartes was correcting him before Kir Osh challenged him to try.

"Don't be so impatient, Kir Osh. Let's see… Hmmm… Nine digits. And it's all numerical. But it can't be something random: she liked toying with people's intelligence." Dr. Lartes muttered.

"Hmmm… The date of the Palace's inauguration?"

"No. You still fall one digit short."

"Hah, hah, hah, hah, hah…"

The bluish particles flew out of an AC intake over the door and then formed into the spheroid: Death Shadow planted a bomb and began to move at a mad speed thus hitting Kir Osh on the upper torso and knocking him into the ground, bouncing off a wall and hitting Burai on the face while shattering his shades, bounced off the ground to hit Acid Ace on the stomach area, which knocked the air outta him, bounced again and hit Harp Note's right leg thus making her fall down the slope because of the lack of balance, impacted on Dr. Lartes from behind and then landed atop the door's frame just as the bomb detonated and the explosion made Rock Man fall down the slope, too: in total, the whole thing hadn't lasted even two minutes.

"Grah! How can this guy move so fast? That had to be Mach 1 or something like that!" Kir Osh cursed.

"Oof… He knocked the air outta me despite the armor…!" Acid Ace coughed.

"My shades…!" Burai growled.

"My right leg…!" Harp Note groaned.

"My back…!" Dr. Lartes complained.

"O~w… That explosion was beastly! I prefer Crimson Dragon's attacks to that!" Rock Man cursed.

"Hah, hah, hah, hah, hah… What weaklings!" Death Shadow taunted as he reverted into his normal form.

"Where are those two?" War Rock demanded.

"Inside of this door…" He announced as he signaled it with his left hand's middle finger.

"You got buddy-buddy with them or are ya using them to get outta this rock?" War Rock questioned.

"Hah. We have made a pact because we seek the same, after all. And we have the methods inside of this room. Seven minutes. That is all I need to destroy you!" He laughed.

"Something tells me ain't kidding!" Kir Osh cursed.

"Ta-ta-dan! The 7th Cavalry Regiment comes to save the day, leaded by Mars Warrior!"

"Come at full power!"

"This time I won't lose!"

"Che."

Omega, Sigma and Blood Shadow suddenly landed down atop the structure to face Death Shadow: he merely crouched and jumped into the air to then spin and land on the valley entrance: he charged up energy and began to hover over the ground while shooting the stream of missiles towards the three of them: Sigma wisely used his sword to block them while Blood Shadow and Omega landed in the NE and SW positions of the valley: Sigma picked directly north and in front of Death Shadow: he hit the floor with the left hand and it was immediately covered by "Omicron Factor" while he plunged the arm cannon into it, loaded it up and then aimed for Sigma.

"Death Spiral Beam!"

He shot an spiraling mass of energy towards Sigma who used his sword to bounce it off but then Death Shadow shot the red beam of energy at Blood Shadow which caught him off guard: he pulled him as he jumped towards the right and had hit meet the bounced off attack thus hitting him on the helmet and cracking his shades and part of it: his eyes irises' were a mix of red and golden.

"This guy…!" Blood Shadow cursed.

"Hah, hah, hah, hah. You lowlifes are predictable. Come!"

"Plasma Round!"

"Charged shotgun shot!"

"Demon Rings!"

"Useless!"

Death Shadow suddenly morphed into the spheroid and built up speed before hitting Sigma's chest and shattering a shield-like object around it into fragments: he latched a bomb into his neck and then headed towards Omega: he generated up electricity around his spheroid body which made the plasma mass loss unity and break up, to Omega's surprise: he hit him on the face and left an imprint on it while breaking the jewel on his forehead and cutting some of his artificial skin thus revealing the robotic face beneath it: lastly, Death Shadow leap across the air and formed two spears the sides which frizzled with electricity: he landed at Blood Shadow's feet and the electricity made the "Omicron Factor" on the ground ignite with an explosion followed by the bomb Sigma had managed to latch off his neck: the explosions sent the three of them flying and out of the compound to hit the ground in a violent manner: Death Shadow laughed and then landed back atop the frame.

"Weaklings! Nothing but weaklings! You lowlifes are powerless in front of the incarnation of evolution I am!" He proclaimed once he resumed his normal form.

"HRA~H!"

"What! UGO~H!"

Death Shadow had reverted his normal form and was looking down (literally) on the group when someone yelled and something opened a wound on his back: he lost the balance, hit the slope and rolled down into the valley entrance: he had to roll to the right to dodge something which fell down from above and almost hit his chest: he stood up and gasped when seeing Omega there, who'd plunged his sword into the ground: he'd lowered his sight but he was showing his teeth and appealed as being rather angered: a crimson glow was emitted by the LEDs inside of the shattered forehead jewel and an "aura" of that same color was surrounding him.

"Finalize?" He gasped.

"Wrong." Vadous announced over the radio.

"What is that, then?" He demanded.

"Omega's true form. He's removed the limiters."

"Limiters!" Death Shadow gasped.

"Dark Messiah… That's the name. He turns into a destructive rage and he won't stop until he's incapacitated or his enemy has been destroyed: a form which he rarely uses because it requires a lot of power and energy thus reducing the span of time before the mandatory "cool-down" system halts his activity… But he can keep like this for 1 hour at this rate. And he only needs 55 seconds to deliver his combo set which can either destroy or greatly weaken his enemy." Vadous added in a dull tone as if he was commenting the weather.

"Dark Messiah…!"

"… Hrah!"

Omega violently pulled the sword outta the ground and then face Death Shadow: his eyes' irises had become crimson and he looked like an unleashed beast: Death Shadow suddenly seemed to lose confidence and he stepped back while trying to ignore the vertical gash which had formed on his back and which was slowly closing off.

"… M-Missile Shower!"

"Death! We need 4 minutes!" Kurayami told him over the radio.

"4 minutes…! Huh! Fine!" He cursed.

"What's wrong?" Kanaya asked.

"Turn on the camera and look!" He replied.

He jumped into the air and bounced off a wall to put some distance between he and Omega as he began his missile barrage: Omega ignited some boosters attached to his boots and he began to move the saber at a maddening speed, cutting through _each missile_ with only having to change the inclination or angle of his saber: Death Shadow drew a Break Saber Battle Card on his left arm and used it to shield his body as he tried to shoot some quick rounds at Omega: he cut through everything and was getting closer with every passing second.

"I-impossible!"

"HRA~H!"

Omega swung the saber as he flew past Death Shadow in an arch which split his Break Saber and opened a gash just below the torso's armor: Omega didn't waste a second and he drew the gun which he loaded up to shoot out a plasma shot: the round impacted into the left shoulder from behind and opened a wound there: Death Shadow uttered something and morphed into the spheroid to speed away and left a bomb behind him: but Omega was already chasing after him and the bomb exploded in vain: Death Shadow cursed something under his breath and then suddenly de-morphed and landed behind Rock Man: he drew another Break Saber and closed his left arm into him from behind: Rock Man gasped and was frozen in place Death inflicted a slight cut there.

"Do not come any closer or…!" He began.

But Rock Man regained his composure and suddenly crouched to then grab the left arm using both hands and project Death Shadow into the ground using a _judo_ technique: Death Shadow cursed and morphed again to escape Omega's saber by mere inches as he plunged it into the ground again: he pulled it off and quickly chased after him.

"Death! Two! Two minutes!" Kurayami told him.

"Huff…! Huff…! I am doing what I can!" He shot back.

"HRA~H!"

"Can't that bloodthirsty machine say anything else apart from those roars of anger?" He cursed.

"When Omega is on his "Dark Messiah" all he thinks about is combat procedure: he cancels all non-essentials processes to save up processor space and process the program's routines faster. So, in short: he gives up rational speech for the sake of battle." Vadous shrugged.

"What the…!" Death Shadow uttered.

"Which means that you're in a pretty tight leash…"

"What a machine!" He hissed.

"55 seconds!" Kanaya rallied.

"Fine! Hellish Beam!"

Death Shadow began to shoot out a continuous orange-colored beam of energy at Omega which impacted him fully and began to cut through some layers of his armor: Death Shadow rushed over to him and kicked him in the face thus propelling him towards the ground: he continued past him and quickly became particles as he got inside of the AC duct and reformed inside of the room while panting: the machine was humming louder and several LEDs had turned on.

"Good job! 30 seconds left." Kurayami told him.

"We're glad we didn't come out, for once." Kanaya grimly muttered.

BANG!

They gasped and looked at the armored door: the tip of Omega's saber had managed to get past it and it suddenly was taken out to cut through another spot.

"Crap! He plans on making an opening!" Kurayami cursed.

"How much time?"

"20 seconds…"

"Can you suggest a powerful Battle Card?" Death Shadow asked Kurayami while sounding nervous.

"Powerful enough to stop that guy and win us time…? I know! Meteor of Crimson! That should knock him and those other guys back for enough seconds! Have it!" Kurayami gasped.

He handed Death Shadow a Giga Card as Omega cut through the door for the third time and quickly took the saber out.

"9 seconds…!"

"We can make it!"

"HRA~H!"

CLANG!

A square piece of the door jumped off as Omega was entering by sliding in with the feet first but Death Shadow was ready.

"Meteor of Crimson!"

Crimson Dragon formed on the room and spit out "Destroy Breath" which knocked Omega out and the attack hit the others waiting on the side of the doors thus knocking them out, too.

"Charging complete! Self-destruct timer: on! 10 seconds! Move, move, move!" Kurayami ordered.

"Roger!"

Both Kurayami and Kanaya ran inside of a purple-colored bubble with a grayish mass set inside of it while Death Shadow glanced backwards for a second: Omega was definitely knocked out but Rock Man had somehow managed to get inside and was somehow still standing but the wounds caused by the attack were evident.

"W-won't let you… escape…!" He exclaimed.

"Hmpf. Missile Shower!"

"Gra~h!"

The missiles inflicted major damage and Rock Man collapsed into the ground while Death was just a few mere centimeters from the bubble's edge.

"5 seconds to self-destruct."

"Farewell, Omicron!" He exclaimed.

He jumped inside and Rock Man slowly lifted his right hand while he struggled to try to remain conscious: his sight was blurring and he could see several red stains forming all around the vague silhouette of the machine: he made a grimace and suddenly lost consciousness…

17:08 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Gotta hurry, or else…!"

Vadous had suddenly appeared in front of the chamber's entrance and was rushing towards it while looking afraid, for once: he could see how everyone else was knocked out and wounded by Crimson Dragon's earlier attack.

"… Self-destruct timer activated."

"NO~!"

Vadous rushed towards the door but a brutal explosion expanded the hole Omega had made and the shockwave pushed him back: both Omega and Rock Man were pushed out by the shockwave and landed, hard, on the ground, while Vadous managed to crouch and try to withstand the wave of heat which expanded out of the room and set the remaining stains of "Omicron Factor" in fire: a bluish smoke began form while the explosion died down and the distinct odor of burning circuitry emanated from the armored chamber.

"… Ugh… Agh… H-hell… Maria…! You didn't have enough with… a bit of explosives… you filled the whole frame with them… to ensure a more brutal explosion… didn't you…! Ugh… Huff, huff… This has gotta be the worst expedition… ever… that Death Shadow guy's a… killing machine on its own…! Hell! Curse them!" He hissed.

He managed to stand up somehow and began checking on everyone: Blood Shadow and Sigma were also there.

"They recovered and climbed up just when this happened… Huh? Omega's degree of damage… Subaru doesn't look like he was hit by the shockwave, unless…!"

Omega's back had lost some of its armor and he had burn marks but his pose as he hugged Rock Man from behind indicated that he'd somehow managed to shield him.

"Omega…!" He muttered with obvious awe.

17:11 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Phew! We made it."

"Yeah… Somehow."

"Free…! Free at last!"

"He looks like he enjoys the feeling."

"Obviously… Being stuck inside of a cavern for almost a whole decade is enough to make anyone behave like that…"

"So… Where's this at?"

"I dunno yet."

Kurayami, Kanaya and Death Shadow (who was pacing around while lifting his arms and looking eager) were standing inside of a warehouse-like building filled with construction material.

"We could Cyber-In into the "cybernetics" of that command console and try to figure out where we are, although this is supposed to Kodama Town…" Kurayami told her.

"Sure. Death! Are ya listening?" Kanaya called out.

"Huh? What? Ah. True. We need to find out if the trip was successful enough or not." He turned around and seemed to snap outta his distraction.

"I know you're glad to be free to walk around and so, but save it for a few minutes until we find out if we ended up in the right spot."

"Fine. I have waited 10 years. I do not mind waiting a few more minutes to rejoice." Death Shadow shrugged.

"Let's go! The _Death Club_ starts today!" Kanaya rallied.

She performed a Cyber-In into the console, followed by Kurayami but Death lingered on for another second while chuckling.

_Death Club? Good! Let us bring doom to this _era_!_


	15. Chapter 14: Return

**Chapter 14: Return**

21:41 PM (Japan Time), Saturday August the 7th…

"… I assume all responsibility, sir and ma'am. I was reckless and I almost got them killed. I am to blame, sir and ma'am. I really am."

"But, Mr. Vadous…"

"Please do not insist, Daigo – san. I dragged him along and got him into a spot where he ended up at inches from death…"

"Daigo – san… He feels guilty. Let him be."

"Akane…"

_Those voices…? Boss, dad and mom…? This beeping sound…? This breathing sound…? This sluggishness…? I can't move… I feel very tired, too… Wait… Is this… a hospital…?_

"Uh-unh…"

"Oh! Subaru!"

"Subaru!"

"Call the medic!"

Subaru slowly opened his eyes: his sight was blurry and he could barely make out three figures looming over him: someone stepped in at a quick pace and the three figures stepped back as a fourth one loomed over him at that moment.

"Hello? Can you hear me?" A medic asked.

"Uh-unh…"

"Sorry. But we can't take out the oxygen mask yet. Don't move. Can you focus your sight?"

Subaru made an effort and the medic's figure became more defined and detailed: he then looked towards the right to spot his fathers and Vadous (sporting a black suit, pants, and brown shoes and using blue contacts).

"You've suffered several wounds and burns. They are not really grave, but it would be best if you remained in observation during this week and didn't do any stressing exercise."

"Unh… Uh…"

"If you don't feel energetic enough to formulate words, then you must be accumulating tiredness. Have you done too much physical effort today or had an accident? There were another three persons who have been brought in today and having similar symptoms. But it looks like there was something which cushioned or absorbed most of the wounds, too. Can anyone explain it to me?" The medic asked the presents.

"… I guess they can process me later for saying this without explicit Satella Police permission, but… They did carry armored bodysuits which did absorb most the wounds and shocks. But it's been a stressing long day for all of us, too. He was directly next to a brutal explosion capable of bringing down a four-story building, too, and that's why he got the wounds. I can't go into details, but… It was something critical." Vadous sighed.

"I see. Well then, I'd rather go with this approach."

"I understand."

"Good. Don't touch anything. Call a nurse if he needs something but it'd be better if you let him rest."

"Roger, _sensei_."

The medic came out while Subaru's parents sat down on two chairs and Vadous remained standing behind them: Subaru looked towards them and tried to formulate a word.

"I know what you want to ask. No. We don't know where that trio fled to but it can wait. However… I should admit something. When I got there, I found that… Omega had shielded you."

Subaru gasped and looked surprised while his parents turned around in surprise.

"Really?"

"I still find it incredible."

"Why?"

"Because Omega had been knocked out by Crimson Dragon's "Destroy Breath" attack while he was still in "Dark Messiah" mode where most of his mind is focused on battle and doesn't allocate space for thinking of something else outside of battle or speaking, either. But he somehow managed to, in less than 60 seconds, re-route all his processes and shield you: he got a large burnt on his back, some of his hair ended up black and shrapnel fragments got stuck into his body: the repairs capsule is now working on healing those after Kir Osh and Lartes removed them. They'd suffered less injuries thanks to their combat armors and because they were the furthest ones from the doorway." Vadous explained.

"Whoa! But that proves that Omega did care for Subaru, right?"

"Yeah. I always thought he was somewhat of a bully with lame jokes and teasing but it'd seem that he looked up to Subaru given his "justice" feelings and attitude…" Vadous muttered.

"By the way, Mr. Vadous… What happened with Misora – chan, Akatsuki – san and that young man?"

"They're more or less better than Subaru because they didn't get additional beating up… But they will remain under observation. Urakata – san from Okudama Studios came to check on Hibiki and Dr. Yoiri came to check on Akatsuki… Solo is being cooperative because he had an intense fight with Death Shadow earlier, so…"

"I see. You said you'd found some HDDs which had survived the explosion there?" Daigo asked.

"They're being studied."

Vadous' Hunter VG vibrated and he walked over to a window before answering it: the screen only displayed static.

"I want to report an emergency!" Someone exclaimed.

"Wrong number. This is not the police."

"B-but! A strange disguised man who names himself "Phantom Black" is breaking into each of Kodama Town's houses looking for someone named "Rock Man"…!" The caller added.

"… Spielberg was a good drama director." Vadous suddenly replied while looking unimpressed.

"What! Spielberg? THE Spielberg? No! That man was a cinema man: he had nothing to do with drama and…! Yikes!"

"Hyde. Did you really think you'd fool me? I don't know how you got my number or if you dialed it at random, but let me tell you something: you're an actor who had his moment of glory and now is sliding into decadence and oblivion. You aren't the first and won't be the last. So go greet your public and stop bothering decent people while they're visiting a friend and having supper with them." Vadous shot back.

"W-who…?" Hyde demanded.

"Vadous. Remember it. Next time Omega the "Dark Messiah" will make your run all the way to Alaska and make you hide in the Twin Lakes region for some years. Over."

"O-oi! W-wait! I am…!"

Vadous cut the call and shrugged while he articulated his right hand's fingers: Subaru had lifted his eyebrows and looked surprised while his parents were taken aback.

"Anyone can figure out the police's number. And the way he reported it didn't fit. A stressed person wouldn't know the name: he'd just try to give a general idea." Vadous muttered.

"True…" Daigo muttered with a hint of surprise.

"… Subaru. Please answer me this. Can you forgive me for what I had you go through today?" Vadous sighed and walked over to Subaru's bed while looking depressed.

"Ah… Y-yeah… Boss… I've been… through… worse, even… Andromeda… Ra Mu… Crimson Dragon…" Subaru slowly replied.

"… True, yet… Look, Subaru. One of the things which happen when you become an adult is that you have to assume responsibilities for what you do. I had the responsibility to look over you during this adventure and I behaved in a horrible manner. I had you go fight Death Shadow which was deadly enough taking into account him being a novice and then you tried to stand up to the guy when you'd been weakened by the "Destroy Breath" Crimson Dragon shot at you. So, I am to blame. I will not force you to go through those things again…" Vadous told him.

"But… Boss… I knew… the risks of it, but… I wouldn't give up… without trying…" Subaru argued.

"… Without trying…" Vadous muttered as if recalling something.

"Something came to mind?" Daigo asked.

"… No, not really…"

"Still… For a monster-like thing to be able to transform into a humanoid cyborg and gain speech plus human intelligence is… It still baffles me, really!" Daigo commented.

"It baffles all of us." Vadous sighed.

His Hunter – VG vibrated again and Dr. Lartes showed up onscreen: he'd put reading glasses on.

"Boss… The HDDs…"

"Yeah? What was on them?"

"We found an abandoned and decayed spacecraft not too far from the settlement. They came from there. And we were right: there was a human settlement there, 10 years ago, for a few months. Then Death crashed and everything led to disaster. It fits with the paintings we found on the temple-like building and the _katakana_ inscription."

"So, those HDDs are…"

"The ship's logs… The founder's will was included in the last of them, so I've transmitted the contents to the Satella Police…"

"I see… They wanted to prove living in a natural world was possible like our antecessors did."

"Yeah. All of his speeches are focused on the "nature" topic. It'd seem they tried to seal the shaft up and did so but the substance spread through air and earth… There was no stopping it. And when Maria came in years later she surely used the already existing pit to build the refinement facility…" Dr. Lartes told him.

"Good. Make sure that these disks reach his family: they deserve to know what happened to him."

"Roger, Boss. By the way…"

"What?"

"Sigma has just told me he's caught Phantom Black arming a scandal atop TK Tower."

"TK Tower? Wasn't that where you met him, Subaru?"

"Yeah… Boss… He kidnapped… _iinchou_… and formed ghosts… just to set up a terror film's scenery…"

"I thought as much. So?"

"He told him to get outta there and the guy ran like he was going to be beaten up along with his Choina-made top hat."

"But the hat is not real: that's part of his Denpa – Henkan form…"

"I was trying to shake some stress off."

"Ah. Fine. How are Omega's and Blood's repairs going like?"

"Blood's over 95% repaired since his damage wasn't very high but I'm running a system diagnosis to make sure nothing strange infected him or corroded any circuit when the monster ripped the pieces off. Omega's repairs are over 80% done: we spent a lot of time disinfecting the wounds and sterilizing him to be on the safe side."

"Good."

"How are things over there?"

"Subaru's awake and he doesn't seem depressed at all. He and the others will remain under observation. We resume hunting tomorrow morning: not even they can come up with something catastrophic in less than 24 hours." Vadous replied.

"Roger. Send my greetings to Subaru."

"Of course."

Vadous finished the call and suddenly frowned: he brought the right hand to his chin, too.

"… What's wrong?" Daigo asked.

"… Hyde resurfacing is nothing out of ordinary, yet… He seems to be drawing unnecessary attention to him. No. Don't misunderstand: he's working alone. But he seems to want to hide something by showing up from time to time and I suspect he's purposely staging a show to make us believe he ain't serious or remotely dangerous. Maybe I should keep some tabs on him…" He exposed.

"Hmmm… Sounds logical, yeah…"

"I guess I'm bothering you all too much. I need some sleep like everyone else does. I'm going back. I'll come tomorrow. Please sleep, Subaru, and relax. You still have over a month of vacations left, after all."

"Roger, Boss…"

"And do tell Ushijima that I'd recommend his _gourmet_ habits to Dragon Hell." Vadous formed a smile.

"To Dragon – san…! Gonta…! Eating those weird dishes…! Trying to play the _gourmet_…!" Subaru laughed.

"Good night, Mr. Vadous."

"Good night."

Subaru glanced at him as he came out and then giggled…

22:04 PM (Japan Time)…

"… So! Gonta! No pestering Subaru – kun, get it?"

"Uwa~h… I knew that, _iinchou_! Ya needn't call me at 10 PM in the evening 'cause I was dreaming of a new recipe!"

"Same goes for you, Kizamaro!"

"B-but, _iinchou_… I never bothered Subaru – kun and…!"

"Save the presidential speech! Get it!"

"R-roger!"

"Jack! Don't go with that "I'm a manly showoff" attitude because if not I will complain to Queen Tia – sensei! Something tells me you've been up to sneaky things as of late!"

"Yikes! O-okay! I'll go there… eh… _iinchou_!"

"Fine! Good night!"

"Luna – chan… Couldn't you tell them that thing two hours ago instead of putting up needless makeup which you then will have to remove anyway?"

"None of your flying businesses, Mode!"

"Flying businesses…? Are you going to invent those?"

"Be silent!"

"No good, no good…"

Luna had been calling Gonta, Kizamaro and Jack to tell them of the plans for the next day: Mode was rolling his eyes and looked resigned.

"And Misora – chan may be better stay away from Rock Man – sama: I am his destined person!" She yelled next.

"I knew it…" Mode sighed in defeat.

Luna began pacing around and shouting while Mode looked on…

22:13 PM (Japan Time)…

"… Good news! There's no doubt anymore than we've completed our trip successfully. We should take a while to document ourselves and research in a discrete manner… Maybe we could start by switching countries: there's a lot of security in several areas here and we don't want to get into trouble with the local authorities."

"Yeah. Maybe Rome would do fine…"

"Rome?"

"A city… It's known for it being the home of one glorious empire: an empire is a territory ruled by an emperor. You know how the settlement was headed by one human, right? Well… It's the same concept yet the emperor always has a "divine" background to him. But don't get nervous, Death! You've only lived 12 hours. There'll be plenty of time to research on concepts. And we'll give ya a hand."

"Fine. I feel an intriguing sensation upon me…"

"Hunger for info? We data beings are like that."

"Intriguing."

Kurayami came into the warehouse where he, Kanaya and Death were hiding at: Kanaya was sitting atop a crate while Death was folding his arms and leaning against a wall while sounding amused.

"So, our club's gonna be named the _Death Club_ 'cause Death started it up, Kanaya?" Kurayami asked her.

"I thought it was obvious!"

"My bad… Didn't want to annoy ya."

"I know ya didn't. Now let's focus on practical manners: how are we gonna get to Rome?"

"Easy! We pick the high-speed lanes at late night and take profit of the little to no traffic: we can get there in a few hours' time and pick a spot to hide: Rome has plenty of them!"

"Good enough. Any objections, Death?"

"No. You two know better the workings of human society and technology, so I shall simply follow. But the idea you told me of improving the compatibility of the "Omicron Factor" has picked on me. I think I could try to research on that." Death Shadow let out.

"That'd be terrific. Our deterrent."

"Deterrent?"

"A threat, a weapon to keep the enemy at bay… In essence: "you attack me, then I counter with THIS" and so on… It's a concept which has been used with nuclear weapons to avoid total destruction of continents and the danger of humanity's self-annihilation… We'll tell you more over the days." Kanaya giggled.

"A weapon to keep the enemy at bay… I can understand that. True. If anyone tries to attack us, then… We shall show them how foolish it would be and the consequences of their foolishness." Death Shadow nodded in understanding.

"The _Death Club_'s on the move: the _shinigami_ knocked at your door and this ain't a Halloween trick – o' – treat!" Kurayami grinned.

"Jeez. Halloween is a King Land tradition…" Kanaya sighed.

"I knew that. I was making up a practical joke."

"Yeah? You'll end up like Omega?" Kanaya skeptically asked.

"No way… That guy's half-nuts." Kurayami groaned.

"_Totally _nuts." Kanaya corrected with a hint of annoyance.

Death Shadow looked on at their argument and chuckled aloud in his sinister and echoing tone of voice.

_Foolish humans… Fool around while you lowlifes can… I shall bring terror and chaos to this planet…! Hah, hah, hah, hah, hah…_

**THE END**


End file.
